The Parable of the Shepards
by MosaicCreme
Summary: When Dawn Shepard ('The Lives and Deaths of Commander Shepard' aka TLADOCS) and Jane Vakarian (Parable) both interact with the same artifact in parallel universes, something happens that pulls Jane and her husband, Garrus, into Dawn's world. Together, they must figure out what happened and how to get the Vakarian couple home. Co-written with squigglysquid (writes Parable).
1. The Meeting of the Two Shepards

**SquigglySquid A/N: '** Parable' is a series telling the story of Jane Shepard and Garrus Vakarian, a pair that meet under very different circumstances than the Mass Effect Trilogy. Starting with his look into a seemingly simple complaint on the Presidium, Garrus soon meets a woman that leaves a large impact. So much so that the two soon develop first a strong, comfortable friendship before becoming lovers and, ultimately bond mates and husband and wife. From there, their relationship sends ripples through their battle against the return of the Reapers.

 **MosaicCreme A/N:** The series 'The Lives and Deaths of Commander Shepard' is about Dawn Shepard who experiences an awakening of sorts. It is revealed to her there exists about a thousand other Commander Shepards, whose consciousnesses reside within her own. With the help of the strongest of these voices, Jane Shepard, Dawn is fighting to change the series of events the others experienced in the hopes of breaking the cycle they are in. If she fails, she fears she will one day join the others, becoming trapped inside the mind of the next Commander Shepard, forced to relive the same terrible battles to save the galaxy from the reapers.

 **General A/N:** Sections written by SquigglySquid will be labeled 'Parable' and sections written by MosaicCreme will be labeled 'TLADOCS'. This indicates author and characters POV, it does not denote a change in setting.

 **The Meeting of Two Shepards**

 **Parable**

Despite the heavy rain pelting them like dense bullets, it was hot, humid, and any other kind of description for the horrible weather pouring down over them. If anyone asked Jane, it seemed like the sudden rain only made everything worse, weighing down the air and wetting it to the point where it stuck in her throat. Even worse, it slicked the metal beneath hers and her mate's feet, making it even more dangerous to trek through the prefabs precariously dug into the side of the cliff. Not that her worries would have been alleviated much under the best of weather. They _were_ still hanging over a bottomless pit with nothing but a faith in shoddy construction work.

When she thought about it, she had no clue how the vorcha gained control of Namakli or how Doctor Ann Bryson and her excavation team managed to stay hidden. Surely a giant team digging around would catch the vorcha's attentions, as they seemed to be the only living inhabitants after a history Jane was too lazy to look up. However, perhaps limited time and Reapers played to Bryson's side in that situation.

 _Reapers doing something good? That's laughable._

Last Jane knew of this shit hole of a planet, harvesters and every other husk under the sky took to bombarding the place in a seemingly uncoordinated attack to find the orb Bryson had been studying. Then, the prefabs her team used all but fell into a chasm, much like the one below this vorcha camp - _or whatever other term to use for a collection of vorcha squatting in some long abandoned settlement_ \- and odds that the struts holding up the ground beneath their feet would last much longer didn't seem in their favor.

Every creak and groan of the supports made Jane all the more curious as to just who the fuck thought building along the walls of a canyon was a fantastic idea, but she didn't dare put her frustrations to verbal questioning. Fate was a cruel bitch and always seemed to be waiting for the _perfect_ moment to throw them into a shit storm, and Jane just didn't feel like testing that. Not if it meant there'd be a laugh being shouted somewhere in the universe over the apparent stupidity the Vakarians always found themselves in.

Perhaps the construction of those labs stood as a means to shelter whatever poor souls that were cursed to work here from the storms who knows how long ago. Not that the hoards of vorcha using these wasted prefabs as breeding grounds give two shits. Storms that, apparently, brought about palm-length bugs to swarm around Jane and her husband in attempts to move in close and grab a bite to eat from their unarmored heads and necks. No manner of weapons or biotics would hold the bugs off, so she and Garrus could do nothing but wave their hands and try to kill any bloodsucker that drew too close.

 _At least the vorcha are taken care of_.

All around the dual leveled prefabs laid the dead, and often charred, remains of vorcha. Without leadership of a krogan - as usual with vorcha - they fell quite quickly. Many charged ahead and out of any semblance of formation, all set for the kill without understanding that a single man could not take on two soldiers with courage - or stupidity - only no matter the weapon or his natural healing ability. Where Jane used biotics and her boomstick, Garrus used his rifle and tech, and both brought down the pack of over twenty vorcha. All good considering it would have either been being eaten to death by the pain in the ass pests or shot - or set aflame - by equally as annoying pests.

"Remind me again why we took this contract?" She swatted at a particularly large alien mosquito and curled her lip at the disgusting smear of cobalt left on her gloves.

 _Looks like one got Garrus. Killed the bastard, so there's that._

"Credits," he answered with a chuckle and stepped up onto a half fallen prefab that led into a small alcove. Turning back to her, he offered a hand up the considerable height - for her short stature. "I think the saying is, 'Gotta get those credits'?"

She snorted as he hefted her heavily armored body up and onto the prefab's sloped roof. "But why pick _this_ one?" A look around told her nothing as to why the Reapers even wanted to attack this planet in the first place, and she knew it had to be more than just the orb Garrus shot the hell out of. Either way, it never hurt to give it a second once over - even if it was on a planet in the ass end of nowhere. "Certainly we could have gone for something less…"

"One with less giant, bloodthirsty bugs and screaming vorcha?" He smirked at her nod before rumbling with tease. "Afraid I didn't see anything classier, Jane. Apologies."

"Smart ass. Next time I choose the job."

"Last time I let you choose jobs, you took me on a suicide mission."

Jane shrugged, ignoring him as she dropped down from the lower side of the roof and onto the solid ground of the cavern. Portable lights - some still working and many others long since burnt out - lined the walls at intervals going deeper into the cliff. Whoever was here before had clearly started digging for something, but, as they moved deeper into a tunnel, she and Garrus easily realized this past expedition never completed its search. By the looks of things, they not only gave up, but dropped everything to leave. Pristine organization and supports structures holding up the walls soon gave way to a haphazardly dug hole, barely big enough for the two of them to climb through single file.

 _If I'm having a hard enough time, I'm reluctant to see the angle Garrus is bending himself in._

"Testing your flexibility to go with that reach?"

He huffed a scoff, he tone clipped in exasperation more than ire. "You'll never let me live that down, will you?"

"Not likely." Coming up to a large rock fallen into the path the vorcha hurriedly cleared through, Jane stopped and tried to bend her back to get it to pop. The move had very little success in the cramped space, but the pitiful - yet satisfying in this situation - little snap of her spine relieved some of the tension. "You know, if the Alliance or Council or - hell - even our richest employer, _Cerberus_ , gave me this mission, I'd say fuck it and get the hell out of it."

"But you won't because we're actually going to be getting paid for this." Garrus could compete with the best gymnasts with the pose he bent himself into - one hand holding himself up as he hunched over and stretched out his neck by turning his head one way, then the next. "Why don't we ever go anywhere nice?"

"Because our luck sucks balls."

"Pleasant," he deadpanned.

She grinned in victory at the possible mental image she just blessed him with before stepping up to the boulder. Her husband followed suit, moving beside her and they both used their combined weight to push.

This job sounded easy enough when they read through the data. Come to Namakli, find this particular site, and find some artifact that the vorcha found and were trying to sell for exuberant prices. Normally, Jane would shrug it off, knowing vorcha would put a price tag on shit if they could, but apparently their own employer had ideas about said artifact.

According to the limited data they were given - limited in that even their contractor didn't know everything - this artifact was something entirely different from what Ann Bryson was finding. Something about what the vorcha were claiming seemed to make the man, woman, or whoever their employer was think that this thing could act like a miniature relay. Apparently, the vorcha thought this because, when they placed something in, it didn't come back out, but Jane thought that was a load of horseshit. It could simply be a pretty hole they were throwing their trash into, knowing vorcha, but the buyer seemed intent. Whatever this anomaly was, they wanted to either study - or just out right use - it for themselves.

With a loud grind of stone on stone and disturbing rain of pieces from the ceiling of the tunnel, the large rock finally shifted enough so that she and Garrus could slip between it and the wall. The lights dimmed down to growing shadows and shrinking visibility this far into the cliff side, but she didn't need much illumination to see what they've been looking for. By the sound of his clicking mandibles and soft rumble of confusion at her back, she knew he saw it too.

Seeming to float above a pool of rolling liquid sat an orb frighteningly similar to those the leviathans used to control their thralls, except the warning of 'something's different' kept ringing in her head. She examined it further to try and pick whatever it was out, slowly building a mental checklist.

To start, even from her current position she could tell its size had to be least twice the size of the orbs they had experience with. Besides that, Jane couldn't remember ever seeing a Leviathan orb free floating or oozing smoky liquid without any apparent damage. This fluid pooled into a perfectly round mass that rippled outward, but never overflowed past the perimeter it made for itself over time. Not even traces of the pool's expansion or breakage of the pristine and perfect orb existed on the dusty ground, appearing to have a supernatural force that kept it in place despite the never ending movement within.

"What. The. Fuck." Sighing, she approached the pool and gazed into a liquid that showed no reflection back. "How the hell are we supposed to transport this thing?"

"Looks like we aren't getting our pay for this one," Garrus said as he stepped beside her and tossed a small stone into the unearthly pond. It didn't sink to disappear into the black as expected; at least not completely as it sat half submerged in. "That's got to be only a few centimeters deep."

"Right. You first."

"Turians don't swim." He looked up at the orb and his mandibles flicked against his chin as he hummed in thought. _Of course he'd use that excuse._ "Maybe we shouldn't mess with it-"

"Fuck it." With a roll of her head to crack her neck, she squared her shoulders in readiness. "Time to pull on your big kid britches and go for it."

"Jane…"

She didn't pay any mind to his admonishing, yet concerned, tone as she stepped into the pool and opened her Tool to begin a diagnostic of the strange orb. Last thing they needed was another Leviathan mind control orb - even if the vorcha didn't seem to be under any sort of puppeteering at the time of their deaths - so she needed to know if they'd be better off destroying it or trying to find a way to actually get this thing aboard their shuttle and back to the Normandy, and their credits in hand.

The feeling of her stomach dropping hit before the actual realization of falling overcame her. A panicked voice screamed her name to the sound of splashing, but her mouth refused to move in any reply. It felt like drowning, but her lungs didn't burn with the need for air. Instead of a sting from the touch of the strange liquid against her open eyes as water would. Only black surrounded her before she simply stopped, no longer able to register the abnormalities of her situation.

* * *

 **The Lives and Deaths of Commander Shepard (TLADOCS)**

Namakli had the entire horde of other Shepards locked away in Dawn's mind in a complete uproar. Even though Jane did all she could as ringleader to the half-crazed voices, keeping their maddening whispers at bay, Dawn still felt the flood of panic sweeping through her everytime she turned a corner. Visions of reaper troops dropping from the sky filled her mind, and the screams of banshees echoed in her ears … she needed to stop several times just to remind herself it wasn't real. Not for her, at least. Not now—maybe not ever, if she played her cards right.

Then again, she didn't play her hand very well with the leviathans, otherwise she wouldn't be on Namakli at all. Still, it might be a fool's errand, but Jane latched onto the idea there might be something worth finding on the planet when EDI suggested it, and Dawn failed to convince the dead woman to let it go and leave her alone. She supposed she deserved as much after having the bright idea to ask EDI to record her memoir. The goal being to provide the AI with as many details as Jane and the horde could dredge up of what the future held in store if Dawn didn't change things. She wouldn't admit it— _couldn't_ admit it—but some part of her knew she fought a losing battle, and her team needed the information rattling around inside of her head if they were going to stop the reapers without her.

"Siha?" Thane's voice, heavy with concern, broke through the cloud hanging over her mind.

The memory of a harvester diving toward her vanished as she blinked her eyes. Turning, she looked at him and forced a smile on her face. She hated needing to; it felt like a lie, but the increasingly frequent, narrow-eyed gazes she'd been getting from both him and Garrus lately left her paranoid. If she didn't pull her act together—hide the signs of battle from them—it'd only be a matter of time before the entire crew mutinied against her, locking her up in the med bay and refusing to let her leave.

She let her gaze slip to Garrus, finding him palming a syringe—just like the ones she carried herself, just in case. He fluttered his mandibles and tucked the sedative away before waving her over. Making her way over to him, she stopped between him and James, who promptly lifted his arm to rest on her shoulder. Dawn snorted but kept her attention on Garrus and the tunnel he pointed at.

"The signal's coming from in here." He hummed, fluttering his mandibles again. "Are you sure you don't want to check in with the task force team first?"

She shook her head. "They're all enthralled by now. Dr. Bryson might be able to offer us insight, but the chances are, whatever she tells us will only be what the leviathans want me to know."

"Ídolo, we're not going to leave Task Force Aurora like _that_ , right?" James dropped his arm from her shoulder, nudging her to get her to look at him. "I mean, maybe we're not supposed to know about them, but we do and we're here …."

" _Right, because we didn't already get our asses kicked by the leviathans once."_ Jane snorted in the back of Dawn's mind.

"We'll call Hackett once we're back in the air. I don't want to draw attention to ourselves here, James." She started into the tunnel, pulling out her pistol and turning on the flashlight. "For all I know, the leviathans will have the task force kill me on sight for not heeding their last warning. Unless you want to have our hand forced into shooting our own." She glanced over her shoulder, just barely making out his furrowed brow and deep frown in the shadows. "Didn't think so."

They followed the path of the tunnel carved out of the side of the cliff, leaving behind the ruined prefab structures from past failed colonization attempts. Dawn fought off the urge to jump or gasp at every echoing footstep or drop of mineral-rich water falling from the rocks above as they progressed through what appeared to be an abandoned digsite. Forcing thoughts of reaper boogeymen out of her mind, she wondered just how old the site might be; everything looked new and untouched by time or use at first. Perhaps Dr. Bryson's team started here and moved elsewhere at the leviathan's bidding. Maybe EDI and Jane were right and they'd find something important on Namakli after all.

Eventually, the tunnel narrowed, leaving behind the relatively modern support structures and floodlights, forcing them to rely completely on their flashlights—or, she supposed in Garrus and Thane's case, superior vision. Herded into single-file, Dawn began to wonder if James and Garrus would be able to make their way through the tight space. A few steps further and something shifted in the air, subtle but palpable enough to send a chill down her spine.

She stopped dead in her tracks; James' hand pressed against her back as he steadied himself, stopping just shy of running her over. "Something's not right."

"It's probably just Jane messing with your head, Ídolo." A soft huff of breath made it clear he suppressed a chuckle. "You've been kinda jumpy all day."

"The air is different here." Thane's soft-spoken words echoed around her, making it sound as if he stood right next to her when she knew he walked drag. "Heavier, with a metallic taste."

" _That's not it … it's like there's something … brushing against us, prodding. Like when you joined with Liara."_ The unease in Jane's voice wasn't lost on Dawn.

"Fantastic." She checked the thermal clip out of habit and sucked in a deep breath. "We're coming up on something. Leviathan, probably, but maybe reaper tech."

"How can you tell?" James asked from just behind her.

"Jane can feel it," she said, lifting a hand to tap the side of her head, "trying to get in." She glanced over her shoulder again, searching out the faces of all three of them—the parts visible in the low light, anyway. "We need to make this quick."

Pushing forward, a faint glow in the distance caught her attention. She held up her hand, stopping her team again and lowered her light to the tunnel floor as she peered into the distance. An oversized orb, much like the ones the leviathan's favored, stood out against the darkness. Keeping her light low, she inched her way forward until she came to a slight dip in the rock beneath her feet just as the tunnel ended, opening up into an expansive cavern.

"Watch your step." She stopped, just inside the protective walls of the tunnel and peered around the edge, sweeping her light over the area ahead.

Nothing. Just rocks, shadows, and one weird ass orb glowing softly and bleeding something somehow even darker than the rest of the cavern. "Gods, what the hell is that?"

" _I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet it's tied to the leviathan."_

"You think?" Dawn thought, not bothering to tone down the snark. Stepping down, she swept her light around again as she made her way toward the orb, the uncomfortable pressure growing stronger with each step. The steady sounds of the others' footsteps behind her kept her going when all she really wanted to do was turn around and go the other way.

Getting a little closer, she realized the orb hovered, seemingly unsupported by anything on any side. When she reached the orb, she saw whatever the hell poured out of it didn't soak into the rocks below but settled like oil on water, gathering into a softly rippling pool, too perfectly round to be natural. Garrus moved to her side, trailing the beam of his flashlight out over the pitch black water. The pool seemed to drink in the light, leaving nothing to reflect back at them.

"Uh … well that's not creepy." James moved up to her other side, shining his own light on the black, trembling surface before lifting it to the steady trickle of fluid coming from the orb.

Squatting down next to the water's edge, she muttered, "Shoulda brought Mordin."

"How deep do you think it is?" James kicked a rock, sending it skipping across the dark surface before it came to a stop on the other side just within the confines of the pool.

Glancing up at him, she cocked an eyebrow. "Not very."

From a little closer, she felt far more certain the liquid, whatever the hell it was, couldn't be water. Reaching out a gauntleted hand, she intended to just skim the surface, hoping to bring a few drops of the substance a little closer to her face for examination. In the fraction of a second it took for her to make contact, she realized two things: she fucked up, and it hurt. Pain coursed through every nerve of her body, searing her brain with electric flames. In the next millisecond, a concussive blast shot from the orb, knocking her on her ass and throwing those standing around her back a meter or more.

Dawn scrambled to right herself, only managing to get one leg tucked under her before the wave of nausea hit. She stopped trying to get back to her feet, taking the moment to clear her head. Lifting her pistol and flashlight, she did a sweep of the cavern, fully expecting reaper troops to pour from the shadows. The sound of wet, sucking gasps from someone long deprived of oxygen snapped her attention back to the leviathan creation in front of her.

Her brain stalled for the span of a heartbeat, shock temporarily stunning her when she laid eyes on a red-headed woman pulling herself up out of the muck. A human woman. Not a husk, nor a banshee, not even a brute nor a cannibal. A human in armor; hands pressed against the surface of the miniature lake as if it were no more than a couple of centimeters deep despite the fact half her body remained below the surface. The liquid clung to her as she climbed, stretching with her ascent as if reluctant to let her go, before reaching its tension threshold and sloughing off of her, falling back to the pool.

Dawn leveled her gun on the woman as she pulled the rest of herself free. Even with Dawn's head still spinning from the blast, she kept her focus sharp and her aim tight. She heard Garrus and the others pulling themselves to their feet behind her, but they just weren't moving fast enough to cover her ass—an ass still splayed out on the cavern floor, no less. "Hands where I can see them."

The intruder's head snapped up, green eyes meeting Dawn's gaze, reflecting as much shock as Dawn herself felt. A shaky smile spread across the red-head's face as she slowly lifted her hands, showing Dawn her empty palms. "Come on, now. You wouldn't shoot a lady before she can make herself decent, would you?"

Licking her lips, Dawn swallowed and pushed herself to her feet, doing her best to ignore the static in her head. "It depends. Who the fuck are you, and where the hell did you come from?" The sounds of weapons being drawn behind her eased some of the tension building up in her neck and shoulders.

"Well, as you can see, I came from this fucking puddle—" Her words were cut off by the raspy, loud sounds of someone choking.

Without having to ask, one of Dawn's team shifted the beam of their flashlight to take in a turian surfacing the same way the other stranger did. The red-headed woman dropped her hands, rushing toward the turian. She made it two steps before Dawn fired a warning shot next to her feet.

The woman stopped just long enough to throw a look full of vitriol over her shoulder. "Shoot me if you want, but I'm saving my fucking husband."

Dawn grit her teeth, a muffled groan tearing through her throat as the red-head kept moving. She let the other woman go, but shifted her aim to track the red glow of lights against black armor.

Making it to the turian's side without being shot, the woman held her hands out to him. "Shit, Garrus—"

" _What?"_ Jane said, her surprise almost enough to knock Dawn back on her ass again.

"Let's not do that again." The turian said, his voice weak. He lifted his head, his face turning toward the light, a threatening growl echoing off the walls around him.

The cobalt markings on his face—looking way too familiar—illuminated by the glow of a visor covering his left eye turned Dawn's blood to ice. She blinked and then blinked again, her jaw hanging slack. "What?"


	2. Definitely Not Clones

**A/N:** It should also be noted that this story does not necessary effect anything in either Parable or TLADOCS. It is meant as a stand alone, completely separate.

 **Definitely Not Clones**

 **Parable**

Jane fell into some kind of portal from hell, nearly drowned by something between liquid and solid, and came out both with her lungs full of the metallic shit and covered in muck. Add the pounding migraine into the mix and it still didn't cover a fraction of the results on her from that fucking puddle.

Instead of a simple break through the surface and into the dark and stale smelling cavern or - and she couldn't believe she thought it - a pack of vorcha ready to shoot her in the unprepared ass, she ended up staring down the barrel of a much more impressive gun. The hand attached to it led her eyes up to a woman who seemed as equally stunned by the nightmare puddle's sudden regurgitation of a living person, but Jane knew better than to test the sprawled woman's trigger finger when she heard the shuffling and creaking of armor further into the shadows.

 _Figures that she'd have backup. Just my luck._

Her barriers would have saved her the surprise bullet from the dark haired woman, but her friends would give Jane lots of new holes before she could get her shotgun out, leveled, and open fire. Sure, she could probably use her unnerving Leviathan-gifted mind controlling biotics to turn them on each other, but that took time. Time that would give this woman and her team reason to shoot her ass.

Talking she could do, but when Garrus surfaced behind her choking and gasping for breath, her mind immediately jumped back to the ardat-yakshi monastery. Had she been just a second slower, he'd probably have sunk too far for her to dive to and drag his ass out. Like hell was she going to keep her back turned to him when he could be floundering in this weird tar-like fluid.

The bullet ricocheting off the stone beneath the shallow pool did nothing to stop her, and she might have thrown a rude gesture over her shoulder if not for her urgency. The woman seemed to pause, considering, but, for all Jane had known, she might have just been lining up a fatal shot. Either way, she zeroed in on only her mate, currently climbing out of the muck with weak arms. Hefting his heavy ass out, it was only then that two beams of light falling over them both drew her out of the trance that, stupidly, left herself and Garrus completely out in the open and their backs turned.

 _At least three, then. This woman and her two cronies._

As she'd guessed, he immediately let out a bassy sound of threat and she practically felt his mind racing with the same statistics as her own moments before. With him - and his own weird Leviathan thing that enhanced his speed and reflexes - they could team up, she dominating one with her biotics and he drawing his weapon in a flash and firing, but it was too risky. All it took was one to catch her biotics flaring and this woman's team would have a perfect shot on her.

What she didn't expect was the determined look on the woman's features to fall. Confusion replaced the steel in her violet eyes, which only made Jane wonder what the fuck they fell - surfaced - into here. If even the ones holding weapons to them were just as flabbergasted by their sudden materialization, then this conversation seemed to be on the fast track to shit hitting the fan.

Worse, yet, she had no idea how to respond when the woman snapped her slack jaw back into place and said, "What?"

Now Jane was lost as she lowered her brows and gave this heavily armored - _huh, is that an N-7 insignia? -_ woman an incredulous look. "Huh? 'What' what? How am I supposed to answer that?"

Had Jane cared to be heard more than have a gun pointed at her, she'd have pushed, but in this situation, she noticed real quick that this N-7's attention wasn't on her at all. In fact, she couldn't seem to take her wide eyes off of Jane's husband. If not for the approaching shadows, Jane would use this distraction - and really considered screwing diplomacy - but the woman's squad soon stepped into sight.

"Oh, for crying…" Groaning, Jane pinched the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes in irritation, and gritted her teeth. How her luck could be so bad, she had no fucking clue, but standing before her were faces she damn well knew weren't possible. At least, not two of them, for obvious reasons.

Surrounding the woman, guns raised and body language loud and clear about their readiness to fire, was a ghost, an obvious copy, and a man that _should_ be on Earth right about now. Instead, she stood at the end of the barrels of a clearly alive - and proverbially kicking -Thane, a very different looking Garrus, and a James Vega who stuck out like a sore thumb because he definitely didn't belong there. Then again, they're all clones, so Jane might as well have been trying to convince the idiot Council of imminent danger for all the good her predictions were worth right now. She had no doubt of who they were _posing as_ because she would know the faces of men she's commanded, lived in a tin space can with, and fought beside against horrors that would make many piss their pants.

The other Garrus asked the obvious of his commander first as he leaned in and spoke just above a whisper. Too bad the cavern was so deathly silent that Jane easily caught it whether he cared for her to hear or not. "Shepard, is that… Spirits, what's happening?"

 _Shepard? What. The. Fuck. She doesn't even look like me! Talk about half assing it!_

Unsure whether to be offended by the lack of similarities or upset by finding yet another clone stealing her name, she scowled and threw her hands up. "If this is another clone thing, I'm out." She motioned a hand to the apparent 'Shepard' of this group of copies. "Just shoot me now because I'm not dealing with that shit again."

As if she couldn't be _more_ pissed off, the Shepard _ignored_ her. Hell, she even turned to address clone Garrus without ever breaking those shocked eyes from Jane and her mate - as if they'd just disappear if she stared intently enough. In this case, Jane actually wished it were possible to save herself from this fucked situation from the damn Twilight Zone.

The woman shrugged at her own Garrus' question. "I don't know, this is all new for Jane."

"Jane," her own Garrus said with a cautious tone to his lowered voice. "I don't think these are clones. Something's… off."

She didn't quite hear him over the almost audible snap of attentions back towards them, this time aimed at herself. More 'whats' echoed off the cavern walls as both Garrus and Shepard's clones looked at them, one with wide eyes and the other slack mandibles. James, somewhat behind the two, made a grunt of a 'huh', but Thane emitted no sound.

 _At least that's right. Even if they fucked up Garrus, or didn't fuck him up. I'm too confused to think about that._

"Can someone explain to me what the fuck is going on, or are you just going to shoot us and save me the headache-"

"Don't shoot her." The snarl mixing with her mate's voice made it obvious enough that he's way more on edge than he let on at her side, but, he's keeping it bottled until given a reason to act. At least, for now, she had control of the situation. Strange as it was.

"Jane…" The woman flicked her violet eyes over Jane, quick, but clearly a soldier taking inventory of a target. "Shepard?"

Jane made a huff of surprise and chuckled softly, giving her husband a look of 'where have these people been?'. "I guess? Though I don't really use that name anymore. You know… since the war?"

When she said anything about the damn war - one that these people would _certainly_ know about if they weren't actually clones - the woman's dark brows twitched slightly. "The Reapers haven't made it here, yet." While she didn't holster her weapon, this Shepard did lower it enough that Jane physically felt Garrus become less tense - but years knowing his tells could led her to imagine it - as the heaviness in the air around her seemed to lessen. Not by much, but enough that she didn't feel like they all balanced on a tightrope ready to snap at a slight wind or misspoken word.

As the others behind follow suit, the James Vega cleared his throat and the sound bounced off the walls, amplifying enough to catch everyone's attention. "Uh, will somebody tell me what the hell is going on?"

"We've stepped into a fucked up-" She started to give her own theory - her own frustration about this _particular_ situation - but Garrus cut her off as sighed behind her. She could hear his mandibles click against his jaw in agitation before he spoke.

"Only the humans know what that means, but I get what you're saying." He rumbled and took the extra step to be at her side where she could finally see him. Once at his place by her side, he turned his attention to the woman and asked, "You say the Reapers aren't here, yet?"

The other Shepard's mouth quirked into a half smile, and Jane started to feel like maybe she and her mate weren't about to be shot by what seemed like a pack of lunatic clones - or whatever they _believed_ themselves to be. "Nope," the woman said with a playful pop to the word that had Jane mirroring her expression.

 _It's certainly better than glaring me down with a gun or gaping like a fish at Garrus._

A silence filled the air and Jane looked to her mate with a raised brow in a 'please, _do_ go on'. Whatever had his mandibles shifting against his chin and a low hum reverberating from his throat must be good if it took him this long to work out how to say it. "I think we're proving the string theory right now."

 _God, let's hope the clones are at least smarter than me with this shit or we'll be here forever._

The James, now at the woman's side, looked between Garrus and his commander. If she didn't know any better, Jane gave that look of 'will someone please explain so I don't have to ask' more than a handful of times herself in her life, so she instantly recognized it making its appearance on James' own face. Her proof came when he rubbed his neck with the hand not holding his weapon at a resting position. "Uh, what?"

The dark haired Shepard gave a slight nod - as if in agreement to what Garrus concluded - before looking over to her James. "Don't you recognize him? It's Garrus. Not our Garrus, obviously, but a Garrus… an older Garrus." _Oh boy, that'll get him riled up, lady._ "And she's another Shepard." _Vakarian - hell, forget it._ With a much slower shift to her Garrus at her right, the woman and turian shared a meaningful look that even Jane understood from her own experience with her own Garrus - weird cloning shit aside. "One who's survived the war."

"At least you put it that way. Too many claim we 'won' the war, but that's a load of horseshit. We barely made it out alive." At that thought, Jane snorted uncomfortably at all the eyes zeroed in on her, as if she'd grown another head or something. "Minus a few pieces, though." Scanning the group that still seemed stuck back on the previous topic, she sighed. "Can you stop staring at me like my armor suddenly disappeared?"

At least the other Shepard moved, gesturing at her weapon without giving any signs of actually taking aim again. _Because that's really what I need right now, to have eyes boring holes in me while their commander actually_ _ **does**_ _put holes in me_. "I'm going to put this away now." _About damn time. Been standing with our asses hanging out all this time, lady._ "Are we good?"

Thankful that she both lost the intent stares and had the chance to finally not have the threat of being shot at any second, Jane nodded. "We're good. Not like we'd get all that far being outnumbered if you're men are as good as mine."

The woman's Garrus flicked his mandibles and muffled a cough into his fist as her James grinned at the opportunity. Before he could say anything lewd in response, his commander swatted his abdomen. Unafraid to let them know she understood her double meaning, Jane smirked at what could have been.

 _She could have at least let me hear it. Prude._

"They are." The Shepard seemed more relaxed than when Jane initially climbed out of the muck, as she stepped forward and offered her hand, a light, but friendly, smile on her face. She finally made her introduction as Jane took her hand, giving it a firm military shake. "Dawn Shepard. Commander, Spectre, yadda, yadda, ya. I'm sure you know the spiel."

"Jane Vakarian, formerly Shepard. Uh… Former Commander and Spectre?" Jane glanced to her Garrus and saw him shrug. 'Tell her whatever you want', he said without ever speaking a word. "Yeah, let's leave it at that. Lots of shit happening after a war and all." Jane noticed that Dawn doesn't seem to consider the differences in their titles much as she releases her hand "So, Shepard or Dawn?"

The woman then held out a hand to Garrus and chuckled. Jerking her head in the direction of her own Garrus, she said, "Only he calls me Dawn." Seeming to consider it, she breathed deep and made a sucking noise with her mouth. "But it it's less confusing for you… I'll survive the indignity."

Jane laughed when the woman smirked. "Shepard it is. Wouldn't want you to think of your lover every time I call your name."

Hand in Garrus', mid greeting, Shepard looked back, eyes sparking with something that made Jane grin deviously at the obvious reason. Jane didn't break the moment and let her own dirty prediction be said by Shepard instead. "Maybe if you weren't an alternate version of myself."

Jane laughed as her husband made an exasperated huff, ending the handshake. _I knew I liked this woman_! Thane, in the back, emitted a cough that sounded more surprised than from any actual need to clear his lungs or throat. Shepard's Garrus just stood there, a quiet still over him as he seemed to still be examining the two alternate versions of himself and his lover.

James, however, lit up at the idea - _and, let's face it, most likely mental image_ \- and he grinned. "Might make it more interesting, Ídolo."

"My translator just glitched." Jane's Garrus blatantly ignored Shepard's shit eating grin and turned to James. "What did you call her?"

With Garrus' back turned, she gave the woman a rough elbow nudge and smirk as she twitched her brows. Like schoolgirls, the two shared widened grins, and Jane started to consider how much more she and Shepard could do before her mate just threw his hands up and gave in. It usually didn't take her long to get him there alone, but with someone else? It'd be a record.

"Ídolo." He shrugged as if it were obvious.

Well, in a way, to Jane it was, and she almost felt bad that Garrus doesn't know the connection between a lot of human languages and how translation can usually be made by comparing similarities. That would mean that she couldn't have fun with his confusion, however, and she wouldn't give that up.

"It means Idol." He waited until Garrus gave a nod of understanding before he turns to Jane. "But I probably call you Lola, huh?"

"Pretty much."

"Just how many things are different here?" Garrus seemed to be aiming his question at no one, more just a verbal musing, but Jane looked to Shepard all the same.

Even if he didn't expect answers, he and Jane got one all the same with the way the entire group seemed to shift a bit on their feet. Thane finally stepped closer from his slightly withdrawn position to stand beside the unscarred Garrus.

Shepard gave her men a glance before answering ambiguously, "As much as I could manage, but probably not enough." She paused, eyes going distant as she tilted her head to the side as if hearing voices in the silent cavern. She then pressed hard against her brows - much like Jane would when overwhelmed during the war.

Whatever the woman's suffering, her team seemed to know, and watched her like hawks. The situation started to feel like these people were amping up to strike like a pack of cornered, wild varren, and she damn sure wasn't giving them the chance to catch her with her pants down again. If they pounced into action, she and Garrus wouldn't hesitate to return fire.

Dawn righted herself in Jane's peripheral and continued. "I'm not sure how you two got here, but you're here now…"

Jane slowly returned to Shepard, knowing Garrus had a steady eye on the anxious men.

Shepard motioned behind her and into the shadows, most likely in the direction of their planned exit. "It might not be a bad idea to compare notes before we figure out how to get you back to your own universe… or whatever."

"Right." Jane gave a quick nod before fidgeting because of the uncomfortable stickiness on her undersuit because of the strange orb's liquid. "But before we do any of that, I need a shower and some clean clothes. My panties are riding up into my crack and I'm hungry as hell."

* * *

 **TLADOCS**

Dawn snorted softly at Jane's comment before lifting a hand to her ear, opening the channel to the _Normandy_. "EDI, please send the shuttle to our location and inform Dr. Chakwas I'd like for her to meet us in the hangar."

" _I don't understand. Who are they, why are they here? If she's one of us … it doesn't make sense,"_ Jane said, her shaky voice reaching all new levels of 'freaked the fuck out'—not the flesh and blood woman standing next to Dawn, but the disembodied voice in her head. " _How did she live through the war, why isn't she stuck inside your head, too?"_

Dawn took a steadying breath, doing her best to shove down the wave of panic and confusion Jane and the other Shepards threw her way and thought, "How the hell should I know?"

Damn this was going to get real confusing real fast. She waited for EDI's confirmation before sweeping her arm out toward the exit. Jane slapped her hands together, giving her palms a vigorous rub and started walking. The new-older Garrus—Garrus version two? Old Man Garrus—ha, that'd probably get her ass kicked, if not by him than by Jane … what the hell did she call him? Vakarian? Mr. Vakarian? Mr. and Mrs. Vakarian? Gods … marriage. Whatever, she'd figure it out later; the _other_ Garrus gave her one last narrow-eyed glance before following his wife, his head moving on a swivel the entire time.

"Tell me the showers on the _Normandy_ are one of those things that stayed the same," Jane called back, glancing over her shoulder.

" _Why wouldn't they be?"_ Jane scoffed, giving Dawn the mental image of an eye roll before changing direction again. " _If it's so confusing, just call her Jane V. and him Other Garrus."_

As much as the notion amused her, Dawn doubted it'd go over very well. She thought, "Jane V. might work, but I don't think we're getting away with calling either Garrus 'Other Garrus.'"

Smiling to herself, she made her way toward the tunnel's opening while giving the area one last pass over with her flashlight. It seemed the arrival of the newcomers shutdown the persistent reaper visions, at least. Remembering the other woman—hell, she'd think of her as Jane V.—said something, Dawn glanced at her and responded, "As far as we know, the _Normandys_ are the same. Maybe a couple of new faces, and people in different places than you'd expect."

Urgency and hope washed over the connection to Jane. " _We need to find out what she did differently. Maybe there's something there we can use."_

"It's why we're going back to the _Normandy_ , Jane," Dawn thought, pushing back against the mile-a-minute, rollercoaster ride of thoughts and emotions. "I really need you to take it easy on me right now. You're not the only one disturbed by this situation, and I need to focus."

"Good, and I could use some clothes. Unless you want me to walk around your ship naked." The corner of Jane V.'s mouth lifted up in a sly smile and she chuckled. Her gaze shifted to her husband when he grunted—a reproachful, familiar sound for Dawn—and Jane V. shrugged. "And I guess some for him, too."

"I'm sure we can find something." Dawn turned her attention to Garrus—her Garrus, wondering if it were possible for a turian to die from shock. She cocked an eyebrow at him, but he only shook his head in response.

He fell in at her right, Thane at her left, and James just a few feet behind her. As they all reached the tunnel, it became awkwardly clear they couldn't continue on in their current formation. One side or the other would have to give, allowing strangers to walk at their backs. She didn't much care for the idea herself.

" _They're not strangers. Not really. She's us and he's Garrus."_ Jane seemed to shrug. " _That's all that really matters, isn't it?"_

"Is it?" Dawn thought, hoping Jane proved to be right, fighting the urge to remind Jane of all the times she and the other Shepards were less than kind to Dawn.

Scraping her teeth over her lip she looked around at the strange group and lifted an eyebrow, turning her attention back to Jane. "Thane and James take the lead, you and me in the middle, those two walk drag? Once we get past this short stretch, we can move shoulder to shoulder, but we'll have to start single-file."

Jane V. shrugged. "I'm cool with it. Not like I'm not used to Garrus staring at my ass." Her eyes widen and she grinned with childlike mischief. "And we can girl talk this way."

Jane scoffed, earning her a twitch of Dawn's lips. " _Girl talk? Is she serious?"_

"Merely watching your six, Jane," the other Garrus said.

Jane V. snorted at her husband's remark—another familiar sound for Dawn, only one she was used to hearing coming from herself. She smiled, the feeling not quite reaching her core, but she felt grateful for the other woman's easy going nature either way; it certainly helped to ease the tension. Her gaze slid to Garrus, and she tried not to clench her jaw when she found him and Thane sharing a _the look_. She knew what _the look_ meant, of course. It had only a little to do with them not trusting the weird anomalies in their presence, and a whole hell of a lot to do with them expecting her to break down at any moment.

Thane, at least, had the decency to look abashed when she caught his gaze and held it. He tucked his hands behind his back and dipped his head to her. "As you wish."

"Works for me." James shrugged, moving into the tunnel opening.

With mandibles flat against his face, Garrus finally nodded his head before tilting it toward the tunnel, silently telling her to get going. She waited for Thane to step in behind James before following him. Glancing over her shoulder as the parade started to march, she saw the others fall into line. Garrus caught her gaze, just barely visible from the glare of his visor and the ambient light castoff from the flashlights. She swore the ice blue of his stare somehow became just a touch colder.

" _It always does when he's thinking about me."_ The same old sorrow painted Jane's words with nearly visible shades of gray.

"Gotta say …" Jane V. glanced over her shoulder before turning her attention back to Dawn. "Definitely feels like being led to the gallows here."

"No one's going to bother either of you unless you bother them first." Turning her attention forward, Dawn spoke loud enough for those behind her to hear.

"Define 'bother,'" Jane V. said, her tone laced with playfulness.

"Let's not test their definition." The raspier, slightly deeper tone of the older Garrus' voice reached Dawn's ears.

" _And him … what the hell happened to him?"_ Jane paused, and Dawn could feel her considering the differences, comparing the older Garrus to every other version of the turian she'd ever met. " _Looks like Garrus, walks like Garrus, sounds … mostly like Garrus … but there's definitely something going on inside his head and it has nothing to do with how FUBAR this situation is."_

"I'd be willing to bet it's not all too different from your own definition, considering …." She cleared her throat and rolled her shoulders. "So, uh, the war is over for the two of you … how long ago did it end?"

"Ugh, math—" Jane V. began only to trail off when her husband's voice filled the air,.

"Three years, four months, and twenty-eight days." The other Garrus finished the statement for her, his tone matter-of-fact.

" _So that's it, then."_ A heavy, laden silence stretched between Jane's last words and the next. " _Life after the Crucible. It's possible."_

"So … twenty-one eighty-nine? Twenty-one ninety?" Dawn asked, doing her best to ignore the swarm of emotions coming from the horde in her head … and maybe a little from herself.

The response came from the older Garrus again, "In Earth cycles, the war technically ended August sixteenth, twenty-one eighty-six."

"So… twenty-one ninety. Why? What year is it here?" Jane V.'s wary tone reminded Dawn she needed to watch what she said and tread the waters carefully.

She lifted her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug, hoping the gesture translated well enough in the shadows. "It's only twenty-one eighty-five. Welcome to history."

Jane V. made a razzing sound. "God, I _wish_ I was thirty-one again. Well, minus the whole 'the reapers are coming' thing."

"And no one listening, no matter how loud you yell … yeah." Dawn glanced over her shoulder, meeting Jane V.'s gaze as she quirked her lips with her sarcasm. "Good times."

The other woman hummed in agreement, nodding her head. "Try asking for vacation time. They act like you're the only Spectre." She glanced over her shoulder at her husband, Dawn assumed. "Spectres."

Dawn's gaze trailed to the other Garrus, a wide grin spreading across her face as pride washed over her. Mentally rolling her eyes, she reminded herself she didn't _actually_ know the turian, and he sure as hell didn't know her. She schooled her features and nodded. "Congratulations?" She couldn't help but notice her Garrus' mandibles flaring in curiosity.

" _Good. Good for him."_ The feelings coming from Jane, reasonably filled with bittersweet hope, echoed her own.

"Thanks. Though, I'm pretty sure they were aiming to try and reign their problem child in." The older turian jerked his head toward his wife. Rumbling in amusement, the sound barely pitched loud enough for the confines of the tunnel to carry it to her ears.

Jane snorted softly in the back of Dawn's mind, finally starting to wind down and relax a little herself. At least for the time being. Thank the gods, maybe Dawn could actually breathe for a few minutes.

"Or, _maybe_ , Garrus Vakarian in any universe really is just _that damn good_." Dawn turned back to watch her footing as the tunnel widened, opening back out into the more recently used area of the mine.

"See!" Jane V.'s voice pitched high with vindication. " _Someone_ agrees with me! _Thank_ you."

Dawn glanced over her shoulder in time to catch the other woman waving at her back, and she smiled. "Figures. I'm sure they're a little different, but all in all … same stubborn turian, hellbent on devaluing himself—unless it's in jest."

" _They all are."_

Her Garrus chuffed, flicking his mandibles at her when she met his gaze. "You know you're going to trip over something and fall on your ass if you keep looking backwards while you walk."

Jane V. laughed, shaking her head. "Mutiny. You should blow them all out the airlock."

Dawn scoffed, catching herself just before she mentioned 'saving it for Javik' and changed direction. "Thane's in front of me, his reflexes are more than good enough to catch me. You'll catch me, won't you, Thane?"

"Of course, siha." Thane's soft voice trickled back to her. "Then again, it might be a useful learning experience."

James' hearty, booming laugh echoed off the walls and ceiling of the more expansive area as the group shifted to fill in the newly available space. Jane V. stepped into place beside her, and she glanced over at the woman, taking in her face in the somewhat brighter light. Dawn already knew the other woman wasn't the same Jane in her head—obviously—although the thought did cross her mind in the stunned moments following the revelation, but with her shock of red hair and delicate features, the two could've been sisters. Dawn glanced over her shoulder to find her Garrus squarely at her six, the other just as resolutely at Jane V.'s.

Dawn turned her attention to Thane's back, giving him her delayed retort. "A learning experience in what, the best way to find yourself responsible for carrying my ass back to the shuttle in full armor?"

"Indeed." He glanced over his shoulder at her, a soft smile toying at the corners of his mouth. "I believe I've proven myself up to the task."

"If this turns into a massive make out scene in the shuttle, I'm going to be very disappointed." Jane V. glanced over her shoulder. "Sorry, but I don't want to taste anymore of that weird goop shit that's on you, too."

" _Her sense of humor is certainly a first for us."_ Jane gave her a soft, humor-filled snort. " _God, she's worse than you."_

"Uh … alrighty then." Dawn arched her eyebrows, glancing at the other woman. "We'll add it to the list of rules for the shuttle. Put it up in big, bold letters: 'No Make Out Sessions Allowed.'"

" _She seems to be handling this whole thing insanely well. I thought we're supposed to be the crazy bunch?"_

"Addendum: 'Without Everyone Involved.'" Jane V. smirked, earning her a chuckle from Dawn.

"But no tongue," the older Garrus added.

" _Oh, that explains it: they're both nuts."_

Jane V. stuck out her lip in a pout, and Dawn snorted, wondering what the woman would say if she could only hear Jane's retorts, too.

"I'm down with that," James said, looking back over his shoulder to waggle his eyebrows at both women.

"We know, Vega." The humorlessness of Garrus' voice worried her. "We all know."

"Hey, don't worry man, there's plenty to go around." James' grin widened before faltering completely, his eyebrows dipping low on his face. "Uh … wait, that's not what I meant."

Dawn snorted, amusement seeping across the thin line separating her mind from the other Shepards. She shook her head. "You sure about that, James? Sounds like a Freudian slip to me."

Jane V.'s easy laugh nearly hid the gentle sound of Garrus' chuff, but there it was nevertheless. Dawn almost felt the soft puff of air against the back of her neck, and it relaxed her a little, easing some of the tension from her shoulders.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." James turned back around. "I'm secure enough in my manhood to take the hit, Ídolo."

"Eh, humans aren't really my thing anymore. If that's not obvious." Jane V. smirked, turning her head to look at her husband before making a show of eyeballing his younger counterpart. "You look like you need to ease tension."

"Jane." A low, scolding hum escaped the older Garrus.

Dawn grinned, resolutely keeping her eyes forward, not really wanting to see the look on her Garrus' face just then. But still, she reached behind her, and a moment later his fingers closed around hers with a gentle squeeze. Daylight began filtering through as they neared the end of the tunnel, and a moment later, Dawn heard the distinct sound of the shuttle landing.


	3. The Voices of Ghosts

**The Voices of Ghosts**

 **Parable**

Besides the fact that the shuttle ride had all six of them packed together like sardines, the ride up to Dawn Shepard's Normandy didn't seem as uncomfortable as their single file walk through the dark tunnel back on Namakli. Sure, Jane was practically in her mate's lap and the orb muck was starting to itch as it began to dry, but she and Dawn were about to shoot the shit with their shared enjoyment for torturing their crew with snark and blatant come ons. Hell, if she knew her own universe's Thane would have the reactions he did here, she'd have teased him more.

Still, she knew that Garrus was getting anxious. Whether caused by the annoying orb liquid under his suit or the situation, she didn't really know, but she couldn't fault her husband for being paranoid. After all, how often was it that they found themselves face to face with alternate versions of not only themselves, but of their entire crew?

Plus, he acted quite the same with the clone fiasco, so Jane wasn't all too surprised. If not for all the shit that happened during the war - the biggest impossible surprises being apparently able to both come back from the dead and have hybrid babies with her husband - she'd be much more concerned and freaking the fuck out over this whole thing. She just hoped Garrus would be able to ease down on the paranoia and lighten up, or at least not give these other versions of people reasons to be suspicious.

 _That… and maybe get him to stop being one of those quiet, broody types that often freak people out._

As she felt the subtle shift of pressure and drift from the shuttle entering the Normandy's cargo bay, Jane looked across the small cabin to Dawn. "So, what's the plan? Do we go under guard? Be put in a hold or something?"

The woman got a look of confusion before she blinked twice in surprise. She stared at Jane for a split second, obviously not considering it until it was mentioned. That seemed like a good sign for Jane and her mate, and when Dawn spoke, her worries of being treated like a prisoner in her -sorta - ship dissipated.

"No, but uh… it's probably best if we come up with something to tell the Cerberus crew - aside from Miranda and Jacob." Dawn glanced at the younger, unscarred - _that's still a bit shocking after so long seeing scars_ \- Garrus. "He could be an older brother?"

 _Rude…_ Yet, Jane bit her lip to hide her snort at the thought of her husband being _older._ She made sure to make a mental note to annoy him with that later.

"I don't have an older brother," Dawn's Garrus said with a flare of his mandibles.

She didn't seem to be bothered by that fact in the least. "They don't know that."

The Garrus shrugged, and Jane took that for agreement. Her own Garrus would follow along, given his shared colony paint and almost exact looks, minus the obvious wear and tear of the war and age - _and giant ass scar_. It would be quite interesting to see just what the unknowing onlooker would think of a supposed big brother being so grouchy even around his 'little brother'.

 _That's just as funny as calling Garrus old._

Dawn continued with her plans for Jane and her mate once Jane turned her attention back to the woman's violet eyes. "So long as no one calls you Shepard, it shouldn't be an issue." As if an afterthought, she added, "It's Vakarian now anyways, right?"

"Yeah, but fuck all if anyone else really uses that. Plus, it's confusing as hell when Garrus and I are in the same room." Jane leans back against her mate, regretting it when she feels a wetness on the back of her head from the orb shit that hadn't dried. She made a face of equal parts disgust and exasperation before leaning back up and rubbing the spot. "And, anyways, Garrus doesn't really call me Shepard since… ever. Not really my kink," she added with a chuckle and wipe of her glove on her thigh guard.

Dawn chuckled as James spoke up with another very obvious problem. "So what do we call him?"

"I'm sitting right here." Garrus narrowed his eyes just slightly and Jane swatted him for being so touchy.

James, easy going just as Jane knew him, shrugged and let the sharp tone of Garrus' voice roll off him. "Wasn't like you were really adding to the conversation. Figured you're the strong silent type." He grinned with that same shit eating look. "Or just like letting your woman talk for you. No judgement."

Dawn pinched her nose in a gesture mirroring Jane's from not too long ago back in the cavern and sighed, but didn't say anything. Even if she had, it wouldn't have been heard over Jane's raised voice to cover her mate's deep growl of agitation. " _That_ brings up a good question!" She relaxed her voice as Garrus' vocals decreased and she kicked her foot back against his shin in a scolding manner - even if it didn't do a damn thing against his shin guards. "I'll have to change my name too considering that you apparently already know a Jane Shepard based on what you said back in the cavern."

Dawn's heavy swallow was visible even across the shuttle before she pursed her lips. "That won't be necessary. Besides, whether you use it or not, as far as anyone's concerned, you're Jane Vakarian. I don't see any reason why the Cerberus crew will need to address you… hell, if they do, by all means let me know."

Jane noticed how, as Dawn spoke, her crew shifted around in their seats and averted their gazes. Well, all except for Thane, but that didn't surprise Jane all that much. He already seemed very similar to the Thane she knew that she pretty much guessed he wouldn't let much get to him. Maybe some of Dawn's sexual jokes, but that was a surprise to Jane anyways.

Huffing in amusement, Jane nodded and crosses her arms, stretching out her legs as much as she could in the cramped space. "Noted. Jane Vakarian it is." She nudges back against Garrus. "You're a deviant human lover even in this universe, so what's your deviant alter ego's name?"

"Gaius." While her Garrus didn't lace any protesting vocal into his answer or move beyond the shift to cover her hand on her leg with his own, Dawn's Garrus did react with a chuff, flicker of his mandibles, and slight shake of his head.

Still, the answer brought a knowing smirk to her face and she bit back her chuckle. Jane wondered if Dawn and her own Garrus dealt with the same racist, closed minded bullshit as she and her own mate did back home. They were obviously open about their relationship with their crew, but, then again, Jane and her scarred Prince Charming just didn't give a damn anymore when they were somewhere along the same place in time as this universe seemed to be.

James, shit eating grin on his face, flicked his gaze to Dawn's Garrus before adding, "He's also banging Jack."

Younger Garrus growled at the man. "Was that necessary, Vega?"

Shrugging, James didn't falter at the irritation in the turian's voice. "I thought it was. Besides, Ídolo is with Thane, too, so it's not like it's a secret for anyone."

"Thank you, James," Dawn deadpanned as Thane coughed gently into his fist - _this is fun. I should have popcorn._ "You can take your foot out of your mouth anytime, now."

Jane snorted and smirked at the clear feeling in the air of 'too much information' being thrown around, and by a third party, no less. Whistling a long note of wonder - the same high pitch that never failed to make her mate flinch because it apparently felt like a white hot poker in his ear - she got up to her feet as both turians rubbed the divots of their ears.

"And here people wonder how _we_ get anything done," she said as she motioned to her husband. "We're just two people fucking like rabbits, but you guys? I applaud your productivity."

Dawn stood up, moved past her Garrus sitting to the right of her seat, and opened the shuttle hatch. "Who says we're productive?"

"Touché." Jane hopped down after Dawn, sure that the others could handle themselves without her husband ripping someone's head off in the few moments she has her back turned. Following Dawn towards Dr. Chakwas, she gave a curt nod of greeting as Dawn started to introduce her and explained the situation, which was something Jane was just dying to see pulled off.

Dawn first started with the basics. "Hey, doc, I brought you something. Don't ask how - because hell if I know - but my best guess if the artifact we found ground side transported these two here. This is Jane Vakarian," she said as she nodded her head over to Jane and Jane smiled in hello. _Damn, has it been awhile, Chakwas._ Dawn then pointed over her shoulder to where both her and Jane's Garrus seemed to be talking in private. _Odd, but not bad considering he was about to shoot anyone that looked at him funny._ "Wife of _that_ Garrus Vakarian."

Chakwas gave Dawn a meaningful look, raising her brows, but the younger woman gave a shake of her head as answer. Then, before the doctor can start with the twenty questions routine - because Jane just _knew_ that's what all Dr Chakwas' do no matter the universe - Dawn raised her hand to stop that particular runaway train. "Yeah, I don't know. For now, we're calling him Garrus' brother, Gaius, as far as the Cerberus crew is concerned." Dropping her hand, she added, "Who knows what the trip here did to them, so if they'll let you, check them over. At the very least, make sure they're not contagious."

"Not to ruin anything, but it'd be a bit late for that, don't you think?" Jane looked back to where the two Garrus - well Garrus and _Gaius_ \- were now returning. James and Thane had already taken position close enough to be included in the conversation, both hearing and able to add information when asked, but far enough that it didn't look like the group was bunched together in some scheming huddle. "I mean, if we were, the entire shuttle would have gotten whatever it is. Sorta puts a damper on things."

"Not really. It'd just mean we get quarantined in the hangar. EDI already knows it's standard protocol to filter the hangar's air supply after every ground mission separate from the rest of the ship." Dawn gave Jane a chipper smile and Jane chuckled softly in understanding.

If they said they had quarantine procedures covered, then it was good enough for her. Who was she to argue with her own logic that had a shit track record?

Moving past protocol and possibilities of contagion, Dawn then said, "We have a quarian aboard who's been working with Legion-"

Jane stilled at the mention of her long lost geth ally, and whatever else followed Dawn's words were lost in whispers from her nightmares. Even after the war ended years ago, the nightmares persisted, taunting her with those she failed to save or convince to save themselves. She feared no matter of time would ever make the dead completely silent.

The whispers slowly faded as she caught the last of Dawn's words. Putting that together with what she _did_ hear, however, didn't really leave her in a position to guess what was said. She blinked away the fog she's sure she began to hallucinate over the floor of the cargo bay - the fog of her nightmares - and looked at the two women. "What?"

Only after her half-dazed question came out did she take in the concerned looks and inwardly sighed. _Great… That wasn't supposed to happen_. True, Dawn had a very similar look in her eyes back in the cavern to what Jane was sure she herself just had, but damn if she wanted people she just met to see her faltering. Dawn had a good portion of her crew as support - at least, by the sounds of it, she did - and, if not, she at least had her own Garrus, Thane, and James Vega. Jane, however, only had her mate in these PTSD attacks, and he was only one turian.

"Are you alright, dear?" Dr Chakwas asked with that same tone Jane knew so well and she had to fight back a sigh of sadness for the old doctor's retirement in her own time.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good. Just brought back memories." She cleared her throat and swallowed as they nodded in what seemed like understanding. Looking back to Dawn, she motioned with her hand in silent request to continue. "I didn't catch that. Sorry."

"I was just saying that we have a quarian on board who's able to remove her mask, and quite often now, thanks to Legion's help." Dawn paused for a millisecond, as if waiting to see if Jane would drift off again. "If you two stick around a bit, I'll be putting you in port observation while Tali and Kal are visiting the Migrant Fleet."

Jane skimmed over the mention of Legion, zoning out for the mention of his name, but got the gist. Dawn's people were managing to accomplish what it took a war to do, have a quarian and geth work together to strengthen the quarian's immune system. "I figure that's helping with the whole geth and quarians hating each other thing? Or are you all keeping it secret?"

"No, that's why Tali and Kal are with the Fleet. They're taking part in negotiation discussions. I led some of the Fleet to Rannoch a couple of days ago to start the process." Dawn shifted her weight enough that her eyes seemed to catch the two turians, but her distraction only lasted a moment before she continued. "With a little luck." A flicker of annoyance lit her eyes before disappearing. "And hopefully one mule-headed admiral out of the mix, the quarians will be moving back to Rannoch soon."

"Better than me having to yell at the idiots." Jane shrugged before looking to the doctor and sighing. "I take it it's time for exams? I have to warn you, though, I have this _really_ bad pain in my legs." She hides her knowing smirk, wanting to get a kick out of a hopefully concerned doctor finding out said legs were made of metal and circuitry. The same could be said for her mate's arm, so she decided to add, "And I think Garrus - Gaius - fucked up his arm. He's so clumsy."

"Of course." Chakwas glanced towards James, and Jane caught Dawn's eyes and furrowed brows. _Oh, I'm probably going to get myself shot, but it'll be so worth it._ "Mr. Vega," she heard the doctor say, "I'm commandeering your quarters. Keep your wandering eyes over here." Looking back to Jane, Dr Chakwas gestured towards the back of the hangar where - just like her own - James has sectioned off a space for himself.

James grinned as the two passed, but he gave a nod of affirmation. "No hay problema."

"Gar - Gaius! Quit chatting with your _brother_ and come here!" Jane shouted across the hangar, waving him over. He gave the younger version of himself a long look - _no clue what that's about_ \- before coming over to where Chakwas motioned for Jane to remove her leg pieces from her armor.

"This seems like an odd place to strip down," her mate said as he arrived, tilting his head and looking at the doctor before Jane. "Why am I here, exactly?"

"I think you should let Chakwas look at your _arm_." She drew out the word to get the point across, but he stared at her a moment before nodding. Not quite sure if he actually knew what she intended or if he just went along with it, she gave him a smirk and tilted her chin towards his person. At her gesture, he stepped back as if now waiting his turn to be examined.

The doctor was too absorbed in trying not to worsen any injuries that might be on Jane's legs to catch the shared look, instead setting aside the last piece of removed armor before opening her omnitool. Tapping a few commands, Chakwas ran the small blade attached through the undersuit.

"Hey! I needed those." Jane pouted as the doctor gave her a motherly look to calm a petulant child. _Dammit, I know that look._ _ **I**_ _give that look._

"Oh, hush, we have plenty of undersuits." Cutting a slit up the front of the leg, her hand slowed to a dead stop the moment the first glint of metal was revealed. Chakwas frowned, then the expression slowly shifted as she raised a brow. "What the hell did Cerberus do to you?"

She can't stop it, Jane burst into laughter, throwing her head back as Garrus understood and looked up at the ceiling with a huff. Of course he'd be a spoil sport about having some fun, but who the hell cared as the doctor stood and crossed her arms, her eyes narrowing in a stern glare. Chakwas didn't succeed, however, as Jane only laughed more.

"Afraid… that won't work… on me," Jane said through gasps, immune to the motherly scold.

The expression lessened just slightly to give way to exasperation and Dr Chakwas motioned to Dawn. "Doesn't work on her, either."

Controlling her amusement, successfully taking it down to chuckles and a shit eating grin, Jane leaned back with her hands thrown back to support herself. "About the legs… I woke up and they were just… gone. It's a mystery." She looked to her mate for his own story, wondering what he could make up. "What about you? That arm still hurting?" Chuckling, she smiled innocently when realization showed on Chakwas' face.

"You too?" The doctor seemed more shocked by the fact, but perhaps because the Shepard and Garrus she knows were completely different. Hell, if they were compared, Jane would guess that Dawn and younger Garrus would look like they're fresh off the press with no damages.

Her husband shrugged and crosses his arms, his voice a low purr as he spoke. "I thought I looked better without it, so I traded it in for a fancier model."

Chakwas was unamused, clearly, and tapped at her tool. "I still need to test for any contagions. It shouldn't take long, but you need to get down to at least your underthings so I can examine you without the tech in your undersuits interfering."

Jane raised a brow as her mate merely shrugged and began to strip. "What exactly are you thinking we'll have?"

Chakwas seemed to feign distraction, not seeing Jane's questioning look as she focused on her omnitool. "Oh, you know. Could be anything from a simple rash or scale itch to a bacteria that destroys epidermal tissue. Wouldn't want that, now would we?"

"You're shitting me." Still, Jane started to pull off her sticky undersuit.

"Me?" The doctor gave a look of overly exaggerated insult and Jane realized, in that moment, that she'd been played. _Cunning woman_. "I'd never joke about something as dangerous as a possible epidemic." Her amusement died, changing to surprise as Garrus and Jane revealed their full bodies, flesh and plates covered in scars too deep to completely fade with time. "What happened to you two?"

Jane shrugged nonchalantly and grinned. "We didn't think we were badass enough."

"Good lord," Chakwas said as she stilled over her tool and looked over Jane and her mate. She seemed to be considering something and, by the fleeting glance towards the opposite side of the hangar, Jane guessed there was a very big chance that these versions of the people she knows are worried about their commander.

Silence fell over the doctor and her patients as they thought of the war - both on the horizon for one and still haunting the others - and Jane kept her eyes on her mate as he never stopped scanning the hangar, as if for any signs of danger. She knew he had always been on the watch for it since the galaxy fucked them over after all they did in the war, but Jane couldn't find herself to be so paranoid. If she let herself think too hard on it, she'd start to fall into a panic of too many questions, the loudest being 'how the fuck are we going to get back to our twins?'.

Closing her omnitool at the mark of her finished examination, Dr Chakwas let out a long, tired sigh. "I don't see anything on my readings of concern, but if you start to feel or notice anything, don't hesitate to come to me or Mordin."

Jane heard the whispers again, like waves lapping at her ears, but managed to pull herself out faster than before thanks to the heavy weight of her husband's three fingered hand on her shoulder. Pushing away the demands of the dead to be heard, she focused on Garrus' soothing rumble and shook her head to toss off the fog in her mind.

"Right. Be on the lookout." Jane cleared her throat when her words came out strained and tried again. "So… I guess that means we can finally get a shower?"

Chakwas smiled, but Jane could see the knowing sadness in her eyes. _Damn these doctors and their over observant way of seeing my cracks_. Nodding, Chakwas stepped away and motioned to their armors and undersuits. "You can take those too, get them cleaned up. I don't see any worrisome readings from that strange goo. Come by the tech lab before you do, though, so we can get a sample. I just know Mordin will want to examine it."

Jane tugged up her undersuit with its cut open legs and nodded, managing not to freak out from the mention thanks to Garrus at her side. "Understood. No problem. I wouldn't dare deprive him of something new and intriguing to study."

The doctor laughed softly as Garrus collected up his and Jane's armors. Once sure that they're all set to go, Chakwas led them back to Dawn and her small team as they spoke with the occasional nod or hand gesture.

"Shepard?" At the doctor's polite interruption, Dawn and her men stopped and looked over, a hopeful question in the woman's eye that Chakwas answered with a smile. "There isn't anything from my readings that will put the crew in danger. A quarantine isn't necessary."

Dawn's shoulders relaxed as she nodded. "Excellent. Thanks doc." She turned her attention to Jane and Garrus. "Let's see if the showers live up to your standards, then." She glanced over the pair, her eyes stopping and her speech halting for half a second when she caught sight of exposed metal prosthetic. "You can use the one in my cabin if you prefer. I'll make sure you have clean clothes waiting." She started walking toward the elevator, but glanced back over her shoulder. "I can have Jacob clean your armor while you shower, if you want. When you're done, we'll get you something to eat and talk."

"Now we're talking." Jane agreed with a grin and jump to her step as she rushed behind Dawn.

* * *

 **TLADOCS**

Dawn left Jane V. and her husband in the bathroom of Dawn's cabin after setting out towels and having clothes brought up for them. EDI would notify her when they finished, and keep an eye out just in case one or the other of them decided to go snooping. Gardner worked on making sure the couple had a hot meal waiting for them, and in the meantime, Dawn called a meeting with her team and the good doctor in the comm room.

"No, she's _a_ Jane Shepard," Dawn said, tapping the side of her head, "not _the_ Jane Shepard." She ignored the smugness rolling off of Jane, as if Dawn meant anything more with her words than to mark a clear distinction between the two people.

"But she's married to the other Garrus, so, really she's Jane Vakarian," James added with shrug of his shoulders.

"Thank you, James, but that really isn't the point." Miranda lifted an eyebrow. "I'm far more concerned with where she came from and how she got here than what her legal name happens to be."

"And if they're here, who or _what_ else might show up?" Jacob shook his head. "We need to study the artifact, make sure it's safe. Make sure nothing else is coming through from their side. We've got our own problems here to deal with."

"Chances of Vakarians coming through highly unlikely; chances anything else coming through more so." Mordin waved his hand. "Still, phenomenal discovery. Appears to be evidence of existence of parallel universe. Should take time to adequately investigate and catalogue artifact. Happily volunteer." He glanced between EDI's hologram and Legion. "Also unlikely to be coincidence parallels to Shepard and Garrus arrived. Perhaps something more to do with whatever is happening to Shepard. Difference in relative time interesting factor to consider as well."

" _I don't see how them being here can really explain anything about us. She's obviously different somehow. A Shepard, but_ not _one of us. Not really."_ The conviction in Jane's statement felt like a warning bell going off in Dawn's mind. " _If she were, she'd be stuck in your head, too. She doesn't fit the pattern."_

"But we don't know how different things have been for her," Dawn thought, giving Jane a mental shrug of her shoulders, hoping to convince her to stow any prejudice before it could take root. She needed Jane's cooperation to deal with this, to make sense of it all. Now was _not_ the time for Jane to have one of her breakdowns. "Until she says something that makes it clear otherwise, we have to assume her experiences, up until the Crucible firing, match those of yours and the others'. All we really know is she survived, we don't know _why_ she survived."

"Perhaps they can tell us more about what they experienced." Samara's soft voice, so uncommonly heard in the comm room, immediately drew everyone's attention. "Hearing their story may give us some answers."

"Samara's right. We need to talk to them, see what they can tell us. Not just about however they got here, but about the war, too." Garrus shifted next to Dawn. "They've already defeated the reapers, and Jane," Garrus said, stumbling over the next word to come out of his mouth, "Vakarian lived through it—which means there has to be a way for Shepard to live through it, too."

" _He's right, there has to be a way. Maybe this is the answer we've been looking for,"_ Jane paused while she thought. " _Even if_ she _is different, the worlds can't be so different that whatever she did can't be replicated here. Right? I mean, they probably have all of the same tech and everything, so what'd they do?"_

"Garrus, we don't know if that's true. We still don't completely understand Shepard's circumstances, or what led to the fate shared by so many other versions of herself." Dr. Chakwas' eyes filled with sympathy and concern, tearing at Dawn's insides. "We don't know how closely related our Shepard is to the Shepard of this other world. It certainly does inspire hope, but let's not yet draw conclusions based on absolutes we simply don't understand."

" _Well then, why isn't she in there studying them? We're not going to know unless we do something. Standing around in here talking about it isn't going to get us anywhere."_

Dawn took a deep breath and thought, "They're in the shower, Jane. They're people, regardless, we're not going to put them under a microscope for study. We'll talk to them as soon as they're out of the shower, I promise."

Garrus chuffed, but didn't say anything. Dawn could tell by the look in his eyes and the tight set of his jaw he'd already considered these things, but just didn't want to accept any conclusion that didn't lead to her living through the war. He met her gaze, mandibles fluttering softly as he pressed his palm between her shoulder blades. Stepping into him, she slid her arm around his waist.

"Shepard, our visitors have left the shower and are now talking quietly between themselves," EDI said. "They appear to be wary of my presence, and I believe they are censoring themselves accordingly."

"Thank you, EDI. Please tell them I'm on my way up, and I'll bring them something to eat." Dawn let her hand slip away from Garrus. "Mordin, you'll have a better idea of what questions to ask and what might be relevant in regards to the artifact. Why don't you go ahead and come up with me? Garrus, you should probably be there, too."

" _Are you sure that's wise?"_ Jane said, stopping Dawn in her tracks. " _You saw the look she got when you mentioned Mordin before. He's dead for most of us, Dawn. He's probably dead for her, too. She's not going to talk if she's too busy freaking out over a ghost."_

"Well, yeah … but … Thane would be, too, and she didn't seem too bothered by him." Dawn held up a finger, telling the others to wait while she conversed with Jane.

" _Maybe she was closer to Mordin."_

"Commander, what's Jane saying?" Dr. Chakwas voice drew Dawn's attention.

"She doesn't think it's a good idea to spring Mordin on Jane V." She glanced at Mordin. "She seemed … disturbed when we mentioned your name earlier."

Mordin blinked a few times but didn't say anything. He knew what happened to him in Jane's time, the vids he watched of Dawn during her stint in Project Lazarus made sure of it, but they really never talked too much about it all. She'd done everything she could think of to change Mordin's fate and still cure the genophage, and he knew as much.

"Of course." Dr. Chakwas nodded. "It might be best to re-introduce Jane … V. to the crew slowly and make it clear to her she's under no obligation to see anyone she doesn't wish to see. Her husband as well, though he seemed to be less bothered by the idea."

"Fuck that." Jack leaned against the wall, crossing her arms resolutely across her chest, a grin on her face. "You can't tell me there's another Garrus up there, and then tell me I don't even get to check him out."

Dawn sighed and nodded. "Alright. Mordin, hold off for now. I'll call you up if she's okay with it, I guess. Jack, you'll get your chance later." She waved a hand. "Dismissed." She grabbed Thane's sleeve to stop him as the others started leaving. "They might need a chance to talk about you without you being there, too. Is that alright?"

"Of course, siha." He leaned in, giving her a kiss before squeezing her hand. "I'll be in life support if you need me."

Dawn and Garrus let the others file out ahead of them, taking a moment to collect themselves while the rest of the team monopolized the elevator. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and she rested her head against his armored chest.

After a moment, he hummed. "You alright?"

Snorting, Dawn looked up at him. "I'm use to the crazy, Garrus. What about you? This has to be fucking with your head."

"Me?" He smiled at her, but it didn't erase the haunted look in his eyes. "Well, yeah. Did you see the shape he's in?"

She laughed despite herself and shoved at his chest. "Seriously, Vakarian? You see what very well may be your future and you're worried about how he looks?"

He chuffed, flaring his mandibles wide. "Worried? No, I'm disappointed. If I'd known I'd look good with facial scars, I'd have taken the rocket to the face."

Snorting, she rolled her eyes and stepped out of his embrace, pushing back the flood of memories trying to resurface; memories of Garrus lying in a pool of his own blood. Memories not actually belonging to her, but felt real nonetheless. "Liar." She took his hand, leading him toward the door and glanced back at him over her shoulder. "Well, if you change your mind and want to, you know, _actually_ talk about all of this …."

"Don't worry about me, Dawn." He squeezed her fingers. "I can handle it."

" _Can he? He hasn't handled much of any of this so far. Unless you count shooting people you've just met and drinking yourself half to death 'handling' the situation."_

Dawn winced, she didn't really need the reminder of the damage she'd done to Garrus. She tightened her grip on his fingers, and didn't respond to Jane.

They made their way from the comm room and took the elevator down to the mess hall. Tables were already filling up for the dinner rush, and the Cerberus crew cast more than a few curious glances in Garrus' direction. News must've traveled fast about Garrus' 'big brother' being aboard. Picking up four covered trays from Gardner, they made their way back to the elevator without stopping to chat with anyone; neither of them really needed to deal with being cornered and bombarded with questions about 'Gaius'. EDI activated the elevator for them since they both had their hands full, and they took it up to her cabin.

"Ouch!" Jane V.'s voice rang out as soon as the cabin door slid open. "If you pull a tangle one more time, I'm taking that arm."

Dawn snorted, making a beeline for the stairs, figuring the couple must be on the couches down below. "I'm sure I can have someone snag you a hairbrush or a comb from requisitions, if you want." She glanced toward the couches as she stepped down, finding Jane V. sitting on the floor between her husband's knees. "And anything else you need." They carried the trays over to the coffee table and set them down before filling the empty seats opposite of the Vakarian couple.

Jane V. shrugged, pulling loose strands of her hair from the other Garrus' hand and winced. "Okay, that one was on me," she said, leaning back to look at him.

The older Garrus—or, Dawn supposed, she should at least try to think of him as Gaius—flicked his mandibles. "If you keep doing that, I'm taking your legs."

Dawn arched an eyebrow at their playfully threatening banter while she busied herself with uncovering trays, arranging them on the table. "So, uh, how was your shower? Live up to your expectations?"

"Funny how yours has that one clogged hole like ours does." Jane V. pushed herself up, settling on the couch next to her husband.

"Only you would notice that right then. I take offense." Garrus' or Gaius'—yeah, it just didn't work for Dawn—tone sounded dry as he glanced at his wife.

"Uh … OK." Dawn cleared her throat, trying really very hard not to think they meant what she thought they did. "So, we have … whatever the hell Gardner calls this for us," Dawn said, sliding a tray toward Jane V. before positioning another in front of the older Garrus. "And don't even ask me what this is, for you."

" _So they fucked in the shower, what's the big deal? You and Garrus have sex in there all the time."_

"Yes, I have sex in _my_ shower with _my_ boyfriend. No one should be having sex in my shower or my bed unless I'm involved. I don't want to think about them the next time I'm in there. This whole thing is weird and complicated enough as it is," Dawn thought, but then smiled to herself as she added, "Besides, I don't care how open Garrus is, if he thinks I'm fantasizing about some other version of him …."

"Oh … Gardner's cooking." Jane V. picked up her fork, poking at what looked like it might've been chicken at some point. She let out a heavy sigh and frowned. "Just when I thought I was doing just fine without the shits."

Dawn snorted, pulling her tray a little closer. "It's either this, or MREs." Taking a bite of her own, she glanced between the other three. "I filled in the rest of the crew. Some of them are pretty anxious to meet the two of you." She turned her attention back to her tray but watched Jane V. out of the corner of her eye. "Mordin would really like to talk to you about the artifact … but it's your call who you see and talk to while you're here."

Jane V. stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth, a pained look filling her eyes. Setting her fork back down on the plate, the food still on it untouched, she nodded without lifting her gaze from her plate. Her husband leaned into her, pressing his forehead to hers, whispering soft words Dawn's translator didn't quite catch. Her Garrus shifted on the couch next to her, drawing her attention to him, but his gaze seems to be focused on his lap.

Jane V. cleared her throat, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah. We're good with that."

"Is there, uh, anyone you specifically aren't OK with seeing?" Dawn scrunched up her eyebrows, the perverse feeling of pushing against someone's private barriers when they already seemed off kilter set her on edge, but she knew if she didn't ask, she'd hear it from Dr. Chakwas later.

After chewing on the inside of her cheek a moment, Jane V. shrugged. "No. I think I'll be good." She huffed, a humorless laugh lifting her shoulders. "Not like they're the same people who knew me and Garrus."

" _I know the feeling."_ Longing poured through the connection between Jane and Dawn.

Dawn glanced at the older Garrus, but he seemed to only have eyes for his wife at the moment, so she nodded. "Fair enough." She took another bite and glanced at Jane V.'s plate. "I'll give you a chance to eat, then, before calling Mordin up. Gods knows once he starts talking, you won't get the chance to take a bite."

Jane V. stuffed a large forkful in her mouth and nodded. Talking around the food in her mouth, her words came out muffled but still intelligible. "Sounds good."

"And that's where Damocles gets it." The older Garrus sighed, glancing at the ceiling.

Dawn's eyebrows twitched, and she just barely caught the curious flick of her Garrus' mandibles out of the corner of her eye. "Damocles?"

Jane V. nodded, shoving more food into her mouth. Dawn wondered if she was really _that_ hungry, or if the other woman had a tendency to eat her feelings. Maybe coming through the artifact ooze took a lot out of her.

Her husband—who still hadn't touched his food, though he'd picked up the plate—hummed, his gaze wandering toward Spike's tank. "Our son."

Dawn's jaw opened and closed, moving soundlessly until Garrus started choking next to her. She snapped her mouth closed and reached over, pounding on his back. "You alright?"

" _A son?"_ Jane's raw, bitter envy felt like claws around Dawn's throat, robbing her of breath for a second. " _Why does she get to have a normal life? Why does she get to have a husband and a child?"_

Dawn did her best to keep her own emotions steady. The whole married with children thing never really appealed to her personally, but she understood Jane's grief all too well. It was a choice she never got to make for herself, and now she'd never have the opportunity. She sent back one simple thought, the only thing she could really think to say in the face of so much pain, "I'm sorry."

Garrus composed himself, clearing his throat before taking a drink of water. "I'm good."

"You … have a son." She cleared her throat, finding her equilibrium after Jane's emotional assault. Dear Gods, marriage and kids. "You must be worried about him. Gods, I can't imagine … we'll find a way to get you back home to him."

"Them," the other Garrus hummed again. "We have twins, boy and girl."

"Don't look like parents, do we?" Jane chuckled and leaned back against the couch, setting her plate—already nearly empty—on her lap. "Yep, we're badasses even wrangling those two shits together." Sobering up, she looked at her husband, and he flicked his unscarred mandible in response. "And we know." She turned her attention back to Dawn. "You're a Shepard. You get shit done."

Dawn lifted her shoulder, turning her attention back to her plate and swallowed down the emotions buzzing around her head like a swarm of mosquitoes in the summer. "How are any parents supposed to look? Never really considered having kids myself. I just can't quite see myself as mother material." She was glad Garrus had the sense not to argue with her, she didn't think she'd handle it very well if he did. Finally, she gave voice to the question pressing in on her, "How are you not freaking out?"

"About?" Jane V. asked, her posture growing a little tenser. "The fact that we're in another reality? There are dead people all around? People we knew now don't know us?" Her voice took on a steadily increasing pitch, her walls cracking enough for Dawn to see inside just a little. "We have no fucking clue if we're going back?"

" _It's not an unreasonably question, obviously."_ Jane studied Jane V. through Dawn's eyes, taking in each little shift in the other woman's demeanor. " _So, she is freaking out. Just really good at hiding it; at least there's something real showing through now."_

Her husband put his hand on her thigh, giving her a soft, soothing rumble. Jane V. stopped talking and seemed to settle at his touch. They shared a look before turning their attention back on Dawn. She leaned back into the couch, lifting one ankle up to rest on her other knee, letting her foot twitch in the air a moment as she debated how best to go about getting the information she needed from the odd couple without upsetting their lives even further.

"What good will it do?" His mandibles flattened against his jaws. "You'd be stuck with two soldiers, frantic, on a ship full of assassins, mercs, criminals, justicars, and every other specialist under the stars." His brow ridge twitched up. "What would _you_ be doing?"

Dawn sucked on her teeth as she watched the couple in silence, a thousand different scenarios rushing through her mind all in the stretch of a few seconds. She knew what she would've done in their shoes, if it happened back before her own life went sideways, but there was really no way to answer the question now without considering the horde of voices trapped in her head. Jane changed everything and everyone when she made herself known. Lives saved and others lost. She didn't just change Dawn, she changed the entire galaxy with her existence.

" _I'm just trying to save us all. End the cycle."_

The older Garrus' mandibles jerked once, and he leaned forward, setting his plate back on the table. His gaze zeroed in on Dawn in a way that made her suddenly hate turians and their heightened sense of smell. Gods only knew what her bag of crazy smelled like to the stranger.

Garrus glanced over at her, his mandibles fluttering; the look of warning in his eyes told her she was getting too close to the edge. Sitting back next to her, he laid a hand on her bent knee and gently cleared his throat as he turned his attention back to the couple. "We're not saying we're not grateful you're as composed as you are—"

"I'm fine, Garrus," Dawn said, her voice soft yet firm. "Honestly, if I had children to think about, I'd probably be trying to figure out who I needed to shoot, or what I needed to blow up to get back home to them."

Jane V. sighed. "Look. You have no idea the way my heart is racing just thinking about it, how much I just want to say fuck it, take this ship, and try to find a way out of this shit hole universe. But I can't. It'd only get us killed." She held out her hand in a silent but obvious plea to her husband, and he took it without hesitation. "The only thing keeping me from actually acting on that insane plan isn't logic, it's knowing that they're safe right now. It's just us who are in danger of never going back."

Her husband frowned, squeezing her hand, letting out a frustrated huff of air through his nose.

Garrus chuffed, his grip tightening a little on Dawn's knee before he started absently rubbing his thumb back and forth against her leg. He flicked his mandibles and glanced at his older counterpart. "You forgot two unshackled AI."

"And the tank-bred krogan," she added, forcing a smile on her face as she lifted a shoulder and tilted her head a little to the side. She dropped her foot back to the floor and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees when Garrus moved his hand to her back. "I'm glad to hear your kids are safe." She glanced at the other Garrus' plate before looking back at him. "Not hungry, or do you think we've poisoned you? I can make him," she says, nodding at her lover sitting beside her, "taste test it for you if you want."

"Assuming you wouldn't poison me." Garrus chuckled, flicking his mandibles, undoubtedly trying to break the tension built up in the room.

"Please. You know if I wanted to take you out, it'd be up close and personal." She winked at him, draping one of her arms over his thigh. She fought really hard not to let it show on her face when Jane's memory of shooting Garrus floated to the surface, but still it made her dinner feel like a lead weight in her stomach.

The older Garrus chuckled, the sound coming from low in his chest. "As much as I'd love to see you forcing him to eat more of Gardner's cooking, I don't think that." He waved his hand at the plate. "I can't eat when stressed. Been that way since …" He cleared his throat, but Dawn just barely caught the sound of a soft keen beneath the gesture. "A long time."

With a frown, Jane V. twitched her brows, her gaze steady on Dawn and her Garrus. She chuckled, the sound ringing false to Dawn's ears. "He's trying to watch his figure."

" _Bullshit. There's something there. I thought the point of this dinner date is to get information from them. Obviously there's something there for us to learn about, so push for it."_

"Now's not the time, Jane. Chill," Dawn thought.

"I don't know," she said with a smirk, glancing between the other two. "I think the galaxy could do with a few fat turians." She picked at her plate a little more before turning her attention back to them. "Well, if you're ready for round two of awkward and uncomfortable questions, I can call up Mordin. Thane, too, if you don't mind?"

Jane V. nodded, rubbing her shoulder as she dropped her gaze to the floor at Dawn's feet. "Yeah. I have no problem with that."

" _Liar,"_ Jane directed at Jane V. before snapping at Dawn. " _You're just going to let that one go, too, aren't you?"_

Dawn ignored Jane, she'd had a long, hellish day on Namakli dealing with phantom reapers and the death screams of people who weren't even there only to have it topped off with having Jane V. and 'Gaius' dropped in her lap. She didn't need anymore bullshit. She officially got off the rollercoaster and shut down the amusement park for the day. Unless Jane said something that seemed actually worth listening to, Dawn wasn't dealing with anymore until she had the chance to sleep and recharge; Dr. Chakwas' advice be damned.

"It'd … be nice to see them," Jane V. continued.

"Great." Dawn lifted her head, glancing back toward the AI's access node, even though she couldn't see it from where she sat and it was in no way necessary for the AI to hear her. "EDI? Will you send up Thane and Mordin if they're done eating, please?"

"Right away, Shepard," EDI answered.


	4. The Start of a Plan

**The Start of a Plan**

 **Parable**

Jane moved from the couch and watched the clearly alien snake bask in the warmth of its tank in the few moments between Dawn's request and Mordin and Thane's arrival. Her lie hung in the air thick and choking, but she refused to admit that death still taunted her many years after the war. Usually, she could turn away from its laughs and icy fingers - falling prey only in the unguarded hours of sleep - but being there put her face to face with her friends now dangling at the ends of death's strings.

She felt more than saw her husband step up beside her, his presence a calming and unmovable strength. The two stood in silence; Dawn and her own Garrus talked quietly among themselves about something in an obvious attempt to seem less intrusive as Jane stared absently into the unseen distance beyond the reptile's tank.

That silence lasted for only a moment before Garrus spoke quietly at her side. "Jane." He didn't lift his own stare from the reptile before them when she turned to look at him. "A moment?"

"Not really anywhere we can go, Garrus," she said with a chuckle at his seriousness, but immediately sobered at his pointed look down to her. "Alright. Where do you want to talk?"

Instead of answering her, he bypassed the question and steered the conversation towards his own inquiries. "Are you sure about this?"

"Don't think I can handle a bit of some needles and invasive tests?"

His stare didn't falter, he didn't fall for her flippant answer, and she sighed, looking into the sand behind the glass rippled by the the serpent as it had moved about. She felt his eyes boring into the side her skull as he used his sheer presence to push her towards opening up. He has always known she comes to him to silence the whispers of shadowy figures in the fog of the land of the dead, but damn him for being so damn persistent on getting it out of her.

"What do you want me to say?" she whispered, not sure if Dawn would hear, but sure the other Garrus would. Being heard or not, she needed to get her thoughts out to the only one who'd listen, and expected the other Garrus to have the decency to keep whatever he caught from their conversation to himself. After all, her own would have, so perhaps it wasn't too crazy an expectation.

 _And fuck it if they hear. Not like they don't already see it in my eyes._

"I want you to tell me what you're thinking." He rumbled, leaning over to press his mouth to the top of her head, a near impossible task given their height differences. He offered his hand and she took it, letting him squeeze her hand before he stood straight once more. "I _know_ this isn't easy, won't be, because I know you haven't forgotten who stays up all night with you when you dream of that place."

She closed her eyes at a rush of cold that had to be an imagined fallout from her nightmares, of an abandoned world blanketed in fog and full of whispers and distant shadows. Even standing there in the well heated cabin - most likely for the turians and soon to arrive drell's comfort - Jane could swear she felt the tendrils of mist as it wisped around her ankles to drag her down. If she closed her eyes, she would see nothing but shadows and hear only whispers of accusations and loss.

A tug on her hand woke her from her trance as Garrus pulled her against his chest, hugging her with soothing purrs. "Jane. Tell me and we'll send them away."

"No, Garrus." Taking a deep breath, she exhaled and laid her cheek against his chest. "I didn't lie when I said it'd be nice to see them in another way than the dead I see when I sleep. And they aren't the same people I watched die, I missed my chance to say goodbye to." She huffed a weak breath of amusement that felt like ash on her tongue. "Maybe it'd be easier if they were pointing a gun at me in suspicion of just what the hell I am like back on Namakli. I didn't really freak out when I was too concerned thinking a Thane clone was fixing to fill me with holes or snap my neck."

"Only you would be more comfortable looking down the barrel of a gun." A hint of humor, though strained, laid within his rumbling vocals and Jane let herself smile softly.

She relaxed her arms to slide them around to rest on his back. Trying for the same relaxed tone in her voice, she said, "You know me. Can't really feel at home until I'm facing someone down with my trusty boomstick."

"Or that strange finger gesture you do."

Snorting, she swatted his back lightly before sighing and looking up to him. "And I'm not going to tell her to send them away. One, because we all need to know what Mordin thinks, and, two, because it's as obvious to me that she wants Thane by her side as it is to everyone that I want you by mine."

"I don't give a damn what she wants," he said with a low growl. "I don't want you stressing out. She has someone with her already, she doesn't need-"

"Garrus, stop." Her voice is soft as she stopped him, but still firm enough to show him just how she felt about his views on their situation. "We're not really in a situation to make demands."

His vocals kick up in ready to speak his mind as she turned to the door just as it slid open to admit two men who were dead to them just the day before. Mordin, just as she remembered, rushed in with the energy of, well, a man told he could examine alternate versions of people from another reality. Thane entered just as stoic as Jane remembered from her own past and nodded in greeting before moving to stand beside Dawn and let Mordin get to work.

"Told of varying ages, variance in years prior to incident. Assumed scarring when heard about surviving war." He took a deep breath, eyes blinking as he started to pace in Mordin Solus fashion.

 _That's unnerving._ Jane watched as he passed back and forth, asking questions to no one in particular with the occasional glance between Dawn and her own crew and Jane and her husband. The continuing similarities to her own Mordin began to make her body break into chill bumps and her mind fall into the fog, but Garrus' hand around hers helped to calm her.

"Already running tests on samples from armors." He tsked and shook his head. "Operative Taylor's methods of collection peculiar. Still managed to obtain enough to test."

Jane zoned out again as Mordin talked, watching Dawn as her shoulders shifted up, then down in a sigh and she shook her head. Obviously, this Mordin listened to 'don't overwhelm people' just as well as her own…

 _Did. As well as he_ _ **did**_ **.**

Jane frowned and shook it off, stepping towards the couches to sit. Garrus stuck by her side and stood between herself and the walking, talking dead man. Whether he knew he was guarding her or not, she was grateful. She didn't know how she would react if Mordin actually did want to run tests.

"Curious," Mordin said as he stopped in place and turned to the two. "Would like to know events leading to transference. Will need from both parties." He opened his tool and stepped closer to Jane, but seemed to immediately notice how she tensed up at his approach and stopped. "Ah. Still uncomfortable."

"It's just…" Jane's eyes moved over him as she forced her body to stop leaning away. "A shock still."

"Understandable. Similarities," he responded with a glance towards Dawn from her place attempting to pull a chair over to the snake tank. Mordin huffed with a slight shake to his head when he saw Dawn's attention elsewhere before looking back to Jane. "Will try to minimize discomfort. Need to scan for traces of substance remaining on person."

"Remaining?" Jane lifted a brow as Garrus held out his arm for Mordin to scan instead of her. Mordin seemed to consider it before he must have figured one would have said traces just as much as the other would. "You mean that could be on us even after a shower?"

He nodded curtly. "Could leave residue only detectable through microscope, scan." Jane closed her eyes to the sound of him tapping away at his tool. When she no longer heard the slight click of the tool's interface, she figured he had the data he needed. "See no remaining residue. Looked over medical findings. No lasting damage predicted. Mostly discomfort from ingestion."

 _As if I needed to be reminded._

She couldn't keep focus on Mordin for too long before the memories of flailing against Garrus in attempt to rush after him, to drag the idiot salarian from taking a lift to his death, flooded her lungs and stole her breath with its icy claws. Just as well, as it seemed like Garrus could answer the questions as well as she could. Hell, maybe better. He did always pay better attention to situations than she did.

When she opened her eyes after what seemed like an eternally long blink, Mordin's dark eyes lay on her. "Explain first encounter with artifact."

"Uh…" She looked between her husband at her side and Dawn's group, the woman letting her pet reptile move between her hands. From the look of the room - and Garrus' mandibles drawn against his chin in annoyance - Mordin wanted this answer from her and her alone. "We found it in the cavern, just floating there."

"Visual appearance?"

"An orb? Like the - wait. Do you have Leviathan?" she asked as she looked over to Dawn over by the stairs of the cabin.

Instead of immediately answering, Dawn made a noise by sucking on her teeth. Her Garrus beside her growled low and almost inaudibly. If not for Jane being used to picking up on that quiet of vocals from her own turian, she'd never have caught it.

"Yep." Dawn looked up from the reptile in her hands and nodded once. "Those sons-of-bitches are here, too."

"They'd have to be, right? They created the Reapers, didn't they?" The other Garrus asked, mandibles flaring in confusion.

"Yeah." Dawn puckered her lips at her snake, snorting when it hissed at her. Pitching her voice higher - to the tone Jane often used on her twins when they were infants - she spoke to the serpent in her hands. "They made the Reapers and then left us to clean up their mess, didn't they, Spike? Yes, those assholes did. Then they tried to fry my brain when I went to talk to them."

"They did for us too, but we didn't know about them around this time." Jane shrugged and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees, staring at the floor between her feet. "We faced them in the middle of the shit storm that was the war." She snorted a derisive tone. "Guess fucking with people's heads is old hat for them across universes. Did the same to us." She gestured between herself and her mate with a jerk of her thumb.

Dawn smiled weakly, eyes losing their focus on her pet. "Yeah, I guess it is." The second half of her response was lost in her whisper to herself.

Jane glanced up to catch Dawn's Garrus shift enough to watch Dawn in his peripheral. She knew that look from her own husband to know the turian was concerned for Dawn, but it was obviously something she wasn't aware of. Jane wouldn't push, though, because like hell would she want someone to dig around in her own problems.

Mordin pulled them all back to him as he cleared his throat and looked to Jane. "Speaking of orb? Size? Abnormalities in appearance?"

Jane gave him an incredulous look. "In comparison to what?" Lifting her brow, she leaned back and shrugged before holding her hands up in an attempt to size up the orb they had seen. "Hell, I can't even tell you it's size. Bigger than I can show with my hands."

"It had a rough diameter of a meter." Garrus answered for her, shrugging. "Was too preoccupied drowning to measure accurately."

Dawn looked up from her silent contemplation over her serpent - Spike, apparently - and asked, "Was it about the same as the one on our side?"

Jane nodded with her husband and shrugged a shoulder. "It looked like a Leviathan orb, but the size of the one down there, and a giant blackish grey puddle that sucked us in." She crossed her arms. "I wasn't really paying any attention beyond how the fuck we were going to get it on our transport to the Normandy."

"Similarities noted. Alterations?"

Jane shook her head and looked up to her Garrus. "You notice anything?"

"This one was surrounded by people with guns."

"Smart ass." Jane snorted as Dawn laughed, the first sound of amusement from her relieving over the solemn silence.

Across the room, Dawn's own Garrus chuckled, mandibles twitching in a gesture so much like her own husband. Even Thane showed some amusement with a soft chuckle. Mordin, however, seems unimpressed.

 _Never any fun, that one. Well, until he's jabbing us about medical porn._

"Could've been worse." Dawn drew Jane's attention as she spoke and draped her serpent over her shoulders. Moving closer, she stopped just next to the opposite side of the lounge "Could've been other people with guns."

"Even worse, vorcha," Jane countered.

"Vorcha would definitely be worse," Dawn said as she nodded in agreement.

Looking to Mordin from Dawn, Jane lifted her hands up in defeat. "I don't know what else to tell you besides the fact that there are some minor changes like James being around, EDI being unshackled, Legion and a quarian already buddy-buddy enough to start that interfacing thing. Biggest thing is the year difference. Other than that?" She shrugged. "Guess is as good as mine."

Mordin gave a curt nod, a gesture he often gave when cataloging a conversation for later recall. He then looked to Dawn, as if expecting her to add anything to the conversation. He got a narrow-eyed look, suspiciously close to the verge of a glare, as answer. His face quirked in a frown, but he didn't push whatever the hell that apparently was.

Instead, Dawn asked, "What was it like coming through? Did you… hear or see anything? Life flash before your eyes sort of thing?"

Jane frowned, crossed her arms, and stared down at the floor as if she could burn holes through it. She heard Dawn's Garrus hum and felt her own lay a hand on her shoulder to pull her against his side. Leaning her head on his hip, she closed her eyes and tried to remember something she had tried to force in the back of her mind. "It felt like drowning, but… not. It felt… like being spaced again. That weightlessness, that absolution." Her husband rumbled sadly and held her tighter, whispering something in that turian latin she never completely learned. Shaking her head, she lifted her hand to his to comfort him from his own memories of the pain of years without her. "I don't know. It's hard to explain."

"I'm sorry." Dawn shifted her weight. "I know this whole thing is drudging up bad memories for you, and we're poking old wounds. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it'd help us figure this thing out, though. Maybe give us some ideas on how to get you two back home."

"All I know is that we touched it, it suddenly became like a bottomless pit where it was only an inch or so deep, and then we surfaced here."

"I touched the liquid just before they came through." Dawn turned to Mordin and shrugged a little to the now clearly intrigued man. "The second I touched the stuff, a blast knocked me on my ass and then there was Jane, pulling herself out of the mess. He followed a few seconds later."

Mordin cupped his chin and hummed. "Possible conditions perfect for transference. Direct contact across parallels causes intersection of existences." He lifted a finger with wide, excited eyes. "Ah! Might be possible to return under similar conditions. Must correlate with EDI. Want to make sure return to correct time, correct date. Possible loss of minutes, but will not accept more. Need to run calculations. Determine capacity to replicate. Will take time." He took a deep breath and looked to Dawn. "Will need to examine orb and environment. Take samples, run simulations."

Jane's lips spread into a grin as she jumped to her feet with a slap of her hands. "Fuck, I don't know what half of that means, but it sounds a hell of a lot like we might be able to get out of this shit hole." She looked to Dawn. "No offense."

"No place like home, Dorothy?" Dawn said with a smirk and Jane snorted.

Dawn's Garrus looked completely lost by the reference, but Thane actually smiled. Either he got the reference, or he's happy to get the crazy people off the ship, Jane didn't know nor care.

"Give me some fucking red shoes and I'll click them all damn day." She looked to her mate and her grin widened further. She fought not to make an idiot of herself and jump in his arms, but couldn't control herself enough not to look slightly silly throwing her arms around him as he stood up beside her. "Hear that? We may just get our asses back to our own fucking universe!"

Garrus chuckled and laid his hands on her back to keep her close. Leaning down, he kissed her, nipping her lip in the best approximation for a turian - without a tongue session that'd probably get them kicked out of the room - and she smiled.

"Sounds like you guys will be bunking here for at least the night." Dawn shrugged when Jane dropped back to her feet and looked her way. "Unless you'd rather spend it camping next to the orb?"

Jane snorted and lifted a brow. "Right, because I'd much rather sleep on rocks next to some crazy monster puddle and run the risk of finding even _more_ Shepards on the other side if it spills over."

* * *

 **TLADOCS**

" _More Shepards?"_ Jane's thoughts stuttered to a standstill before picking up again. " _I … does this mean there_ are _more? Others like her who aren't a part of us?"_

Dawn swallowed, forcing a smile on her face, but with the way her eyes bulged, she knew it probably looked as fake as it felt. She didn't know how to answer Jane's question, or what it meant for her if it turned out to be the case. Turning her back on the excited couple, she took a deep breath and took Spike back to the tank. Garrus followed her, helping her get the snake back in his terrarium before resting a hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. She leaned into him, patting his hand before offering him a more sincere, reassuring smile.

Sure, the Vakarians coming through the artifact was strange as all hell, but all things considered, it didn't even count as the strangest thing going on in her life. She'd handle it; she _had_ to. Just like everything else.

She made her way back down to join the others, settling on the edge of the couch. "Mordin, I'll take you down there first thing in the morning. Unless _you_ want to spend the night next to the creepy pond?" She scoffed and shook her head. "You know what, don't answer. I'm human, I actually need more than an hour of sleep and it's been a long day. I'll take you down tomorrow."

"Yes." Mordin smiled at Dawn. "Recommend eight hours."

"Five is plenty." She waved him off. She was _not_ having the same argument with him she just held with Dr. Chakwas the day before.

"Shepard," Mordin said, apparently not getting Dawn's mental memo, "inadequate sleep decreases brain function, mood, productivity, libido. Decrease reaction time, muscle weakness, fatigue—"

She sighed and held up her hand to stop him from listing every single side effect. "Okay, six. Minimum. I promise."

" _Of course, what he means is—what they_ all _mean is—if you're not at your best, the big, bad, boogeyman inside your head will wrestle control away from you again and we just_ can't _have that, now can we?"_ Jane scoffed, but it didn't cover the sting of rejection in her tone. " _I messed up. I know I did. But I've been trying really hard to get things right. It'd be really awesome if everyone at least tried to meet me halfway and stop treating me like a plague outbreak."_

"I've seen your efforts," Dawn thought, "and I appreciate them. It might be a little harder for some of the others since they can't hear you the way I do, but honestly, I think the doctors are all just worried and stumped by the whole thing so they're treating it the only way they can think to."

Mordin tsked, frowning a little as he blinked at her. She blinked back, letting her eyebrows creep up her face, daring him to push the issue. If she didn't listen to Dr. Chakwas or Miranda when they got onto her about her daily habits, what made him think she'd suddenly start listening to him—especially in front of new people? New people who now watched her bicker with someone who really shouldn't be quite so interested in her personal well-being. She glanced at Jane V., catching an amused smile from the other woman. Her husband, on the other hand—who Dawn _finally_ decided she might as well just think of as Garrus V. even though it applied to her own Garrus just as easily—seemed to be putting his old detective skills to use, watching her a little more closely than she liked.

Garrus chuffed, patting Mordin on the shoulder as he nudged the salarian toward the door. "Pick your battles, Mordin. I'll make sure she gets some sleep tonight."

Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned her attention back to Jane V. "Port observation work okay for you two?"

The woman shrugged. "Better than most places we've had to sleep." She glanced at her husband. "You good with it?"

Garrus V. hummed, giving the impression of seriously considering the question, but Dawn saw the same look on her own Garrus too many times to buy his act. "You know, I think I'd much rather sleep in a varren pit than a comfortable observation suite."

"Sure, I'll call Wrex." Dawn smirked. "We'll drop you off on Tuchanka."

"Smart asses, all of you," Jane V. raised an eyebrow at her husband before turning her attention back to Dawn and nodded. "Sounds good."

"Excellent. Tuchanka it is, then." She chuckled, raising a hand to keep the other woman from thinking she'd misunderstood. "The port observation is ready whenever you want. I'm sure you know where it's at. You're welcome to head down whenever … but if you'd like, I can pour us drinks and we can talk awhile."

Jane V. grinned, stepping away from her husband to plop down on the couch. "Drinks? Who am I to decline my gracious host?" She patted the seat next to her before crooking a finger at her husband. "Come, sit with me awhile." She smirked when he huffed, but he took a seat next to her as she crossed one leg over the other.

Dawn smiled, moving to the liquor cabinet. She glanced up to find Thane followed her over, gesturing at the cabinet by way of offering to help. Pulling out bottles of rum and turian brandy, she handed them over to the drell before going back for tumblers. He didn't say anything as he helped her carry everything back over to the coffee table, but she knew he felt every bit as concerned for her as Garrus did, he just didn't show it the same way. Undoubtedly, they both wondered what it all meant and how it'd affect her during a time when she seemed to be right on the precipice of breaking down completely.

Sitting down, she opened the bottle of turian brandy and poured both turians a glass, sliding one across the table to Jane V.'s husband before handing one to Garrus next to her. Switching bottles, she glanced at Thane and he nodded, so she poured some for him, adding far less of the rum to his glass than she did the next two.

After handing out the other tumblers, she sat back between Garrus and Thane. With her own glass cradled in her hands, she took a deep breath. "So, uh, life after the war … what's it even look like—on a galactic level, I mean?"

Garrus V. picked up his glass, looking it over before taking a sip. He hummed deep in his throat, a definite sound of approval.

Next to him, his wife took her time with her drink, seeming to hold the liquid in her mouth a moment before swallowing. She rested her arm on her crossed legs and sighed. "Like shit."

"Care to elaborate?" Garrus asked, flicking his mandibles.

Dawn took a swallow of rum, wishing not for the first time that she could drink herself into oblivion the way she sometimes did on shore leave pre-Cerberus makeover. Lifting an ankle up to rest on the opposite knee, she waited to see what the woman had to say. After a moment, Thane rested his hand on her ankle, his gaze shifting between the two oddities sitting across from them. She glanced at him and smiled, covering his hand with her own, tucking her fingers under his palm.

"People were scared during the war, they wanted someone to blame for how fucked it got." Jane V. shrugged, a frown tugging at the corners of her lips as her gaze wandered. She took another drink from her glass, finally settling her stare on the liquid inside as if it held some answer.

Garrus V., likewise seeming to be restless in his thoughts, fluttered his mandibles. "The end of the reapers didn't mean the end of the war."

"There's infighting between the species?" Dawn took another swallow, her eyebrows quirked in question.

Garrus leaned back, sliding an arm over her shoulders. He still held his glass in his hand untouched—which spoke volumes to her about his level of discomfort with the situation despite what he might say.

"Certain species, yeah. There's always those others that want to take advantage, you know?" Jane V. scowled. "And the new fucking Council was shit, too busy tending to the politicians and high rollers to actually care about the little guys."

" _Of course. Why'd they even keep the Council?"_ Jane snorted, the ridiculousness of the idea of the Council existing post-war setting her off on a tirade. " _The way they acted about the reapers from the start, the whole Council should've been thrown out on their asses and an entirely new design put in place."_

Shaking off the urge to laugh at the voice in her head, Dawn thought, "No arguments here."

She took a heavy swallow from her glass, wishing she could drown her disappointment in rum. "So, life as usual?" Dawn offered the other woman a wry smile and shook her head. "I guess I sort of hoped once it was all over, everyone would at least _try_ to work together. Rebuild. Ditch the Council and make something new. Something better." She took another drink before sucking in a deep breath. "Make the sacrifices worth it."

The older turian laughed, cold and every bit as bitter as she felt. "You and Jane both."

His wife glared at him before sipping her drink. "Some at least took the treaties of the war to heart."

"What happened? With the treaties?" Dawn pulled Thane's hand to her lap, wanting to feel just a little closer to him. Shifting in her seat, she leaned her shoulder in against Garrus' side, finding she really needed grounding; the anchoring it seemed like only her two men were able to give her. Hearing life after the war wasn't at all what she and the other Shepards hoped for—the one thing able to make any of this worth it—felt beyond disappointing. In fact, she might call the sudden, hollowed out feeling in her chest 'soul-crushing'. Still, she refused to believe she couldn't change things. She just needed to fight harder.

The woman flipped her hand in the air. "The turians and _most_ of the krogans are working together enough that they trade labor for transport of supplies and the like. The Alliance is too busy with their shit with the Hegemony to really cause trouble, and the salarians still have that division between military and politics."

"Wrex wasn't able to fully unite the krogans?" Dawn's shoulders slumped, whispers of defeat dragging her even lower. "And are there really enough batarians left to _still_ be an issue?"

" _There's enough left to put a small dent in the war efforts. With the Hegemony's hatred of humanity, is it really a surprise as soon as the galaxy's safe and sound they start stirring the shit pot again?"_ Weariness passed from Jane to Dawn. " _Don't let Grundan Krul make you soft and give you a blind spot for all batarians, Dawn. You've seen the worst his species has to offer, you know the atrocities they're capable of. I just pray you're making the right choice giving him so much power."_

"Put it this way," Garrus V. said, drawing Dawn's attention back to him with a flick of his good mandible, "does every human accept turians? Or are there still those that wish my species dead? Or the other way around? You can't really 'unite' a whole people with just one shared cause."

"As for the batarians," his wife added with a shrug, "there's enough to screw over those of their kind that don't want war."

" _Yeah, and just how many_ don't _want war?"_ Jane asked. " _I'm guessing it's a very small minority."_

Garrus cleared his throat and glanced at Dawn, his mandibles flaring, and she shrugged a little. He gave her a brief nod before turning his attention back to the others. "We've uncovered a group of turian terrorists calling themselves The Dissension. It's caused an uprising between turian and humans—The Dissension wants to see humanity removed from the galactic community."

"Of course I don't expect everything to be perfect, but a few years of peace at least isn't so much to ask." Dawn drained her glass. "Nothing unites people like a common enemy, but I guess it just doesn't last very long once the enemy is removed."

"And nothing divides them like suspicion." The older turian looked at his wife. "Turians hating humans is nothing new, but the asari accused us of being too biased with our relationship during the war, and that we used our positions to set up an alliance with humanity and the Hierarchy without them."

" _They don't seem surprised to hear about The Dissension. Maybe they found out about them, too?"_ Jane gave Dawn a mental nudge. " _Ask them about it, hell, maybe they can help us uncover more turians related to the organization."_

"Another time," Dawn thought. "I don't want to veer too far off topic."

She snorted, turning her mind back to what Garrus V. said. "So what? They don't need to be involved in interspecies alliances. Well, this Council doesn't anyway. What's up with the new Council? Is it basically the same as before, or did everyone get a say in who'd be put in charge?"

She poured herself another drink, only for Garrus to take it out of her hands and pass it to Thane. Neither of them said a word, even when Dawn scoffed. She covered the top of the glass, wrapping her fingers over the rim and tugged, only to sigh when she met resistance. Gods, those two were going to be the death of her just by trying to save her from herself.

She wasn't interested in trying to pry the tumbler free from Thane's grip, but damn if she wasn't going to assert herself. "I don't think I need to remind either of you: I'm a grown woman _and_ in charge of this ship."

Garrus chuffed, apparently ready to take his own advice to pick his battles, and nodded at Thane. The drell frowned at her but dipped his head, letting her lift the glass from his hand without further issue. She took a drink, glancing up at but avoiding the gazes of Jane V. and her husband. She really needed to have a talk with her lovers and the rest of the crew about maintaining at least the image of boundaries and respect for the authority of their CO while guests were aboard.

"Same with the Council, as always. Next in line, so to speak. Or whoever was next considering how many were lost in the war and how much of a mess was left." Jane V. sipped her drink and nodded. "And the asari blamed us for Thessia. Assholes."

Garrus' mandibles flared, his head tilting to the side a little. "What happened to Thessia?" He finally took a drink from his own glass.

In unison, Jane V. and her husband both said, "Reapers."

Garrus V. scowled, shaking his head. "They didn't much appreciate when the word that they'd defied their own laws and had a prothean artifact in hiding on their planet got out, either."

"What's the backlash over the artifact been?" Dawn lifted an eyebrow, knowing all too well what Thessia looked like when the reapers finally arrived at the asari homeworld.

Memories of conversations with Tevos—or in the event the Destiny Ascension wasn't saved from Sovereign, Irissa instead—about the hidden artifact started to surface. Oh how smug the asari had been, wanting to hide the true source of their cultural and technological advancement from the rest of the galaxy. Hell, they even kept it hidden from their own masses, tucked away in a temple, hidden in a statue. The chagrin they must've felt when they realized the reapers left them no choice but to suck it up and ask for Shepard's help, using the artifact as a bargaining chip. How much sooner might they have finished the Crucible and identified the Catalyst if the asari agreed to join the fight in the beginning?

Grim hopelessness filled Jane's voice. " _It wouldn't have changed anything."_

Dawn took a deep breath, pushing away the memories and thought, "It might've saved more lives. Less people would've been killed. You'd be ready before the reapers got here in full force."

Garrus chuffed, and she glanced up at him. He studied her, concern thawing just a hint of the ice from his eyes. She lifted her eyebrows in question, and he nodded his head toward their guests.

Dawn cleared her throat, taking a heavy gulp from her glass as she met the gazes of the married couple. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said."

Garrus V. watched her, the all too familiar perceptiveness of his gaze unsettling in the stranger version of a man she loved. She didn't doubt the other turian thought something was off about her, she just hoped he chalked it up to her being quirky instead of insane. Not _everyone_ who heard voices in their head was crazy.

His wife rolled the foot dangling over her other leg. "The matriarchs lost their high and mighty stance now that they were called on their shit." Jane V. reached for the bottle of rum sitting on the table, her gaze flicking up to Dawn.

Smiling, Dawn nodded her head, and the woman poured herself another drink. Garrus V. hummed, turning his gaze on his wife with narrowed eyes. She glanced at him, the look on her face clearly telling him not to start with her. Dawn suppressed a laugh with a cough, but her Garrus didn't bother hiding his amusement, chuffing and fluttering his mandibles. At least it wasn't just her who put up with men trying to control her actions for her 'own good'.

Thane gently cleared his throat. "If I might ask, what is the significance of this artifact?"

Jane V.'s brows quirked, frowning as if she'd forgotten about Thane completely until he spoke.

Dawn turned to look at him. "It holds information we need to defeat the reapers." Her shoulder lifted halfway to a shrug as she spoke, but then she froze completely, horror sweeping over her as she realized what she'd just done. She shouldn't know about the prothean artifact yet. She needed to be careful; as unnerving as they were, the familiarity of the Vakarian couple made her let far too much slip.

" _Oops,"_ Jane said, because clearly it was so helpful in the moment.

Thane's fingers tightened around Dawn's hand, a gesture of support, but Garrus sat rigid on her other side. He rumbled deep in his chest, something she felt more than heard. She kept her gaze locked on Thane while her mind raced, trying to find a way to recover from the mishap.

"Just how do you know that?" The suspicious timbre in Garrus V.'s rough voice made her hackles rise.

Garrus pushed himself up from the couch. "Excuse us. Shepard, can we talk for a moment, please?"

Fighting to school her features, to slip the old familiar commander's mask back into place, she turned her head to look up at him. She expected to see coldness there, or at the very least the constant, near oppressive concern his eyes normally held. Instead, she saw blindingly bright hope. It'd been so long since she'd seen him express anything even close to resembling optimism, she'd almost forgotten what it looked like. He held his hand out to her and she took it, letting him pull her up from the couch.

"We'll just be a minute," Garrus said, almost absently as he led her off toward the bathroom.

Confused, Dawn's gaze darted to the couple just as they shared a look between themselves. Definite suspicion and intrigue colored Jane V.'s green eyes just as much as it did the blue of her husband's. Glancing back over her shoulder at Thane, Dawn found him watching the other couple, but he seemed as perfectly relaxed as ever—which, of course, just as easily might've meant he was prepared to kill the two of them as it could mean he considered making them a cup of tea.

Garrus opened the bathroom door and waited for her to enter before stepping inside himself, the door swishing closed behind him. "I think you should tell them."

She turned to face him. "What?" Her eyebrows twitched, her mind racing to find the hidden joke, because surely he couldn't be serious.

"Tell them." He waved a hand back toward the cabin. "You're not going to have another chance like this, Dawn. If there something—anything—to be gained here from you telling her about Jane and the others, it's now or never."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, far from intoxicated, she still found she regretted pouring herself a second glass of rum. Dr. Chakwas had been on her for weeks about her caffeine and alcohol intake, pushing her to drink less of both and get more rest, but hell if she'd listened. The throbbing ache behind her eyes worsened, punctuating the point.

Jane stirred restlessly in the back of her mind. " _Maybe he's right."_

"Even if they believed me, what's to say we can trust them with this?" Dawn dropped her hand, looking up to meet Garrus' gaze. "Hell, what's to say it doesn't freak them out and cause an incident on the ship? We didn't exactly take their weapons away."

He flicked a mandible dismissively. "Then we kill them."

Her eyebrows shot up, her jaw hanging slack. "Garrus!"

"What?" He shrugged, flaring his mandibles wide. "If it causes a big enough issue to make them draw their weapons, you expect me to _not_ shoot them?"

"They're …" Lifting a hand she grasped at the air, trying to find the words to express what she felt. "... us."

"No. She doesn't even look like you and he's … just another turian from another world who happens to share some of the same characteristics." Eyes bright with excitement, he shook his head. "It's like Jane told me the day she shot me: I'm not her Garrus, and she's not my Shepard."

The sound of Jane's wounded gasp echoed through Dawn's mind. " _Now, that's not fair! It's not how I meant it, and he knows it. I was only saying we didn't really know each other, not that his life is somehow less meaningful because he isn't the same turian I personally knew."_

He waved back toward the door again. "These people aren't us, Dawn. They're not even from our universe. But hell if I can see letting the opportunity pass us by to learn every damn thing we can about them and how it might play into what's going on with you. For all we know, she has the same thing going on with her, but you're both just too stubborn to be the first to speak up about it."

The notion hit Jane like running right smack into a brick wall. Dawn felt the thousands of new questions and musings it brought to the surface, and she struggled to push them away before they overwhelmed her. She'd deal with them later, when she was alone and didn't have _her_ Garrus staring at her with enough hope in his eyes to steal her breath away; waiting for her to answer him.

She chewed on her lip until she just barely tasted blood. "What if they just think we're crazy?"

"They came here _through an artifact from another universe_ … it doesn't get much crazier. Besides, who cares what they think?" He shrugged, his mandibles fluttering lightly against his face. "If they need some kind of proof, you have a ship full of people willing to corroborate your story, and if you really need to, you can show them the vids from the Lazarus Project."

Shepard sighed, her fingers worrying her forehead until he pulled her to him. Resting her cheek against the warmth of his breastplate, she sucked in a deep breath and let it out slow. "Okay."


	5. Revelations

**Revelations**

 **TLADOCS**

Dawn sighed, rubbing her palms on her thighs in an attempt to chase away the edge of panic making her nerves feel like a live wire. Leaving the bathroom, she glanced over her shoulder at Garrus and smiled when he gave her a sharp nod of his head.

"So, have you been serving with Shepard long?" The awkwardness of obvious discomfort in Jane V.'s voice almost made Dawn cringe for the other woman.

Making their way back down the stairs, she found Jane V. and Garrus V. still sitting where she left them.

"No, not long. A few months, I suppose." Thane glanced up at Dawn and Garrus as they crossed back over to the couches, his expression unreadable, but the weight of his gaze like a gentle caress over her soul. "She … recruited me on Illium."

She felt the eyes of the other two on her as she sat down, taking a seat next to Thane once more. Garrus remained standing, leaning against the wall next to the couch, undoubtedly prepared to act if things got out of hand. It felt good— _right_ —to have him there at her six. It's where he belonged; always. Even if she knew he was just as prepared to protect her as to stop her if things went awry.

Garrus V.'s gaze felt heavy and imposing, watching her every move as if he'd make her tell him everything he wanted to know by sheer force of will. Jane V., on the other hand, seemed to relax a little with Dawn's return, her posture shifting, visibly slinking down as she leaned against her husband's side.

Dawn cleared her throat and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, threading her fingers together. "So, uh," she said, stalling another couple of heartbeats by glancing at her two lovers before turning her gaze back to the familiar-strangers sitting on her couch, "there's something I'm going to tell the two of you. It's, ah, unusual, and maybe difficult to believe, but I think it's probably best to put all of my cards on the table here."

Jane V. arched an eyebrow and glanced at her husband. They shared a look, and with a flick of his mandible, Garrus V. nodded.

Turning his attention back to Dawn, he said, "I think the saying is, we're all ears."

His wife chuckled, tilting her glass up to take a swallow. Shifting her weight a little, she pulled herself up straighter. "If it's big enough for a serious talk in the shitter, than it'd be stupid not to hear it."

Dawn forced a chuckle, the false sound like shattering glass to her ears, and she winced. "Yeah, well, bear with me. This isn't exactly easy to talk about." She licked her lips, buying herself a few seconds to try and put order to the chaos in her mind. Glancing at her hands, she locked her gaze there, not wanting to see the looks of disbelief and judgement on the couple's faces. "A few years ago, ah, well around the time Anderson called me to join the _Normandy's_ crew, some strange things started happening with me."

Jane seemed to settle in the back of Dawn's mind, curiosity and anticipation building into gentle waves, lapping at Dawn's consciousness.

Dawn sucked in a deep breath and shook her head, glancing at Garrus. "Fuck, no, I'm sorry. I'm going to need a shitload more rum if I'm going to do this."

He flicked his mandibles at her but didn't say anything, so she topped off her glass and knocked back half of it in one swallow.

Trapping the glass between her hands, hanging on to it for dear life, she dared a glance at the other turian and his wife before she continued. "I started knowing things about people I didn't have any reason to know, being familiar with people and places I'd never seen before. Doing things without having to think about it, like I'd already done it before hundreds of times." She paused, taking another drink from her glass. "At first I thought maybe it had something to do with the prothean beacon on Eden Prime. But then things started being less vague and more … vivid." She glanced at Thane, remembering what it felt like to look at Nassana Dantius sitting in the middle of a Citadel bar, yet have a vision of the drell dropping from the ceiling to kill the asari and her men in the middle of an office building across the galaxy.

Jane V. huffed, a light, humorless laugh drawing Dawn's attention back to her. "You're shitting us?"

Dawn took another swallow from her glass and shook her head. "I wish I was." She filled her glass again. "I don't suppose any of this sounds familiar to you?"

"No." Jane V. sighed and leaned forward, refilling her own glass. "So … what? You can tell the future or something?"

"Um, well, not exactly. Not since I started changing things." Dawn pressed her fingers to her brow, kneading the tight, thin muscles just below the surface and closed her eyes. "Liara—" She stopped, licking her lips and sucking in a deep, shuddering breath. She sighed, feeling Thane's supportive hand press between her shoulder blades. "Liara joined with me to try and decipher the images from the prothean beacon and found something else while inside my head. It didn't make sense to her, so she came to my room a few days later and told me about this 'veil' she'd noticed. Said she'd passed through it before she even really felt its presence, and then she got waylaid with the images from the beacon so the veil slipped her mind, but she wanted to join with me again to try and make sense of what she'd found."

" _She gave us the first real stroke of hope we'd felt in so long,"_ Jane whispered as Dawn's memories filtered to the surface, weaker and less defined than those Jane often showed her, but with good reason: it only happened once.

Jane V. watched Dawn with wide, green eyes, taking increasingly frequent sips from her glass. Garrus V. remained passive, his face an expressionless mask, but Dawn knew he weighed her every word, probably gauging her biometric readouts, too. She took a second to glance at her own Garrus, unsurprised to find him watching the other two like a hawk.

"So, I let her do her thing and everything seemed fine until it felt like my brain might explode and I heard voices screaming … in my head." She took a deep breath and shook her head. "I know this sounds insane. Really, I do."

Garrus cleared his throat, and she glanced up at him. He lifted a brow ridge, his mandibles flared in question, and she shook her head. He didn't have to speak for her to know he was asking if she needed him to step in. Her story, though, she needed to be the one to tell it—as much as she could, anyway.

"Liara somehow managed to jar something loose … to tear through the veil, I suppose, but it knocked me on my ass." Dawn took another drink. "I came to a day and a half later with the galaxy's worst hangover."

" _I didn't realize at the time we were causing you actual damage."_ Jane stirred, a light sensation of regret seeping through their link before she stamped it out. " _But it was our best chance—our only chance—to be heard."_

"I know," Dawn thought, "It wasn't so bad. We've all had worse. Hell, I think it hurt Liara worse than it did me in the grand scheme of things."

Tears started to well up in her eyes, but she sniffed, chasing them away. "The whole thing left Liara a weeping mess. She blamed herself, of course. For awhile, things stayed pretty quiet in my head, except for this occasional buzzing sound—like a swarm of insects—but Dr. Chakwas kept me in the med bay while she called in an asari specialist in human psychology." She trailed off, going over the series of events again and again in her head, trying to make sure she got it all right.

"Then what happened." The soft, stunned tone of the other woman snapped Dawn out of her rumination.

Blinking, Dawn glanced up, her gaze shifting between the entrapped, wide-eyed stare of Jane V. and the still stoic, expressionless face of her husband. Dawn took a deep breath and drained her glass again. "I had a … dream, or I guess it was really memories happening in a dream." She put her glass down and scrubbed her hands over her face. "Fucking Christ this is a lot harder than it should be."

" _It's because you're letting it get too personal,"_ Jane offered.

"Maybe you should just skip ahead." Garrus flicked his mandibles when she looked at him, concern crystal clear in his blue eyes. "Summarize things."

She swallowed and nodded. "Uh, so, the buzzing I'd been hearing started fading in and out, shifting into voices every now and then … like trying to tune a station on a comm with heavy traffic or one of those old radios on Earth. Dr. Tulina ended up joining with me and created this, sort of, safe zone in my head where we talked in peace, without the buzzing, and reviewed the experiences I'd been having. We discovered, ultimately, the voices are definitely _not_ from the beacon—and I'm not like psychic or telepathic or anything like that." She cleared her throat. "Long story short? I've got about a thousand dead people trapped in my head. Not just, you know, random dead people, but other Shepards."

" _Not a thousand anymore."_

Dawn glanced up, finding everyone staring at her. The expressions varied, of course, but all eyes were solidly on her. Jane V.'s mouth hung agape, and after a second, she downed the rest of her drink.

Garrus V. hummed. "And what makes you think you're not just crazy and believe you have others in your head?"

A low, warning growl came from behind Dawn and off to the side. She looked over her shoulder, intending to wave Garrus off, but a returning growl issued from the other turian jerked her attention back to him. Jane V. flung out an arm, her palm slapping against her husband's unarmored chest, and she huffed, rolling her eyes.

Dawn thought about the question for a moment and took a deep breath. "In twenty-one eighty-six, the reapers hit. Palaven will be one of the first to be swarmed with reapers. Primarch Fedorian will die, and on Menae, Adrien Victus will take his place."

Jane V. raised an eyebrow, surprise etched into the features of her face as she glanced at her husband. "She's got you there. Ready to hear her out?"

The older turian rumbled, resting his free arm on the side of the couch. "For now."

Dawn actually felt a little relieved; with the hard part already out of the way, the rest might be a little easier. She held up a finger while she gathered her thoughts. "Although it was difficult at first, through meditation, I began to be able to tune in on the voices—well, one voice," she said with a snort, "Jane Shepard."

"The _Jane Shepard."_

"Oh, shut up," Dawn thought, suppressing a snort of laughter when she picked up the sense of a smug, playful smile from Jane.

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "I learned she's been trapped in some sort of cycle. Basically, she joined the _Normandy_ —in twenty-one eighty-three, fought the geth and Saren, destroyed Sovereign, got killed by the collectors," she kept talking, despite the increasing look of alarm on Jane V.'s face, the other woman's eyebrows rising higher and higher, "resurrected by Cerberus, fought the collectors, destroyed their baby-human-reaper, got locked up for _all her efforts_ because she destroyed the Alpha relay trying to buy the galaxy time to prepare for the war, got called on to save the galaxy's ass when the reapers showed up, rallied the troops, fought through the final push on Earth, and then died on the Citadel using the Crucible …." She let out an exhausted breath, letting the room soak in everything she just said.

Jane V. fidgeted with the knee of her pants, tugging blindly at a loose thread before abandoning the task. She stared into her glass, seemingly lost in her own thoughts—or perhaps nightmares—as she rolled the tumbler back and forth between her hands. Dawn knew no matter what differences the other woman might've experienced, some of it—hell, most of it even—sounded like a summary of those same few years of her own life.

Dawn stood, moving past Garrus as he tried to reach for her. She'd found her momentum and she wasn't ready to give it up yet. Pacing the floor in front of her bed, she raked a hand through her hair and continued. "And then she woke up again, in some other sorry son-of-a-bitch's head on the day _that_ Commander Shepard reported to the _Normandy_. Jane watched, screaming to be heard while this other Shepard lived through pretty much the exact same shit before dying on the Citadel. The two of the then woke up in the next Shepard's head. So on and so on." She glanced at Jane V. "They've been living the same handful of years over and over again." She stopped, spinning on her heel to look at the couple, needing to know they felt the weight of her words.

"And … did you do anything with it?" Jane V. asked, her words hesitant as she glared at her tumbler. "You said something about changing things."

Dawn took a deep breath and scrubbed her hands over her face before plopping down on the bed behind her. "I've been changing every gods damned thing I can because I know … I know in every fiber of my being, if I don't find a way to break this cycle, I'm going to die on the Citadel and then wake up just one more crazy, broken, terrified voice in some other poor soul's head." She glanced up at the ceiling, the shutters tightly closed against the void, and for a moment, she felt trapped by them and thought about opening them. Instead, she stood again and resumed her pacing, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "When I died over Alchera … it's a choice I made."

With anger seething through her voice, Jane V. jumped up from the couch, glaring at Dawn when she asked, "And you thought, what? That'd make fighting easier?"

Dawn stopped, turning to face the other woman, locking Jane V.'s fiery gaze in place with her own. "No one said it was my _first_ choice. I tried to think of another way to both stay alive _and_ make sure I'd be in a position to fight the collectors when the time came. For fuck's sake, I even tried to reach out to Cerberus, hoping I might work something out with the Illusive Man that didn't involve me having to die first."

Jane V. sat her glass down on the table, her hands clenching into fists at her side. "There's always another way, even if you have to pull it out of your ass."

" _Who the fuck does she think she's talking to?"_ Ire, thick and hot, poured through the link between Jane and Dawn. " _Yeah, it sucked, but you did what you needed to do to save lives. You're a marine, it's who we are, it's what we do. We fucking signed on for this kind of thing. And, you had every reason to believe it wasn't permanent!"_

Dawn stared at Jane V. a moment longer, feeling the roar of blood pounding through her veins and bit back the urge to knock the older woman on her ass. Sucking in a slow breath through her nose, one side of her mouth ticked up in a half smile. "I get you've been through hell, Jane V. Really, I do. But I strongly suggest you remember who's ship you're on and just _who the hell you're talking to_ before you decide to do something real stupid here." She cocked an eyebrow. "Pull another one of those options out of your ass and stand down."

Jane V. let out a heavy exhale and rubbed her temples. "Fine. Fine …."

" _Is that how she survived the war? Being too weak to make the hard calls?"_ Jane snorted, the derisive sound as rough as sandpaper against Dawn's mind. " _Shit, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't even use the Crucible herself."_

Dawn took a slow breath and thought, "Okay, Jane. Enough, let's move on. This isn't helping."

Jane V. returned to her seat on the couch next to her husband and upended the bottle of rum, pouring the last of it into her glass. Garrus V. made a move for it, trying to take the tumbler from her, but she pulled it out of his reach. He let her be, watching her for a moment before turning his gaze back to Dawn.

Dawn looked between the two of them for a moment, her gaze finally settling on the older turian—clearly the more level-headed and sober of the two—when she asked, "Are we good? Should I continue?"

Garrus V. glanced at his wife, watching her as she focused on drinking a third of her rum in one swallow. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he turned back to Dawn and nodded once.

"Good." Dawn kept her gaze on the couple, not really wanting to risk looking at her own Garrus as she continued; not wanting to see the pain she knew she'd find in his eyes. After a moment, she started talking again, keeping her words soft and measured. "Like I said, I tried finding other options, but nothing I thought of satisfied, and I kept coming up empty handed. I already knew the Council and the Alliance both refuse to look into the collector attacks, and it wasn't like I could really go to either of them and ask for help with something that handn't even happened yet—or at least not enough to be on anyone's radar."

She started pacing again, slower though, and less frantic. "Time was running short. I reached out to Cerberus, tried to set up a meeting with the Illusive Man, but I was ignored. So yes, I sucked it up and put humanity before myself. I marched to my death over Alchera, knowing full well where I was headed. I made Garrus promise to not to stop me, and made Liara promise to find me and deliver me to Cerberus. Because it's always Liara."

Dawn returned to the table, her gaze never really leaving Jane V. for more than a heartbeat at a time, and picked up her glass from the table. She downed the rest of her rum and glanced at the empty bottle, considering raiding her cabinet for the bottle of vodka she kept on hand for Jack. "But Liara died." Her voice sounded far more hollow and broken than she intended.

Jane V. tensed, clenching her eyes shut, her hands trembling. Her husband covered one of her hands with his own, wrapping his fingers around hers.

She swallowed. "Why?" she asked, her voice raw with sadness.

Dawn's shoulders sagged, and she pursed her lips. Leaning down to put the tumbler on the table, she let it drop the last half inch, glass clinking against glass. "I don't know. Because I changed something somewhere along the line … and it resulted in her death. Maybe it was because I took a few seconds longer with her as the _Normandy_ was being attacked, but the escape pod she fled on—along with Ashley, Dr. Tulina, and a few other crew members—got hit by a blast." She couldn't help herself, she glanced at Garrus, throwing herself on the blade by allowing herself to see the pain and ice in his eyes. "It left Garrus to find me himself … take me to Cerberus."

" _And the whole thing broke him."_

"He's not broken, damn it!" Dawn's thoughts were filled with a snarl of mixed emotions as she snapped at Jane. "He can be different from the Garrus you knew and not be _broken_. Okay, yeah, it changed him. He's a little colder, harder around the edges, and he's dealing with some shit, but that's life, Jane. Things affect people and it changes them."

Jane V. sighed, downing the rest of her rum before setting the glass down hard on the table. Running a hand through her hair, her brow creased in frustration. "It never fucking ends …."

Dawn let out a soft, sarcastic snort and shook her head. "No, it doesn't. For me maybe quite literally." She cleared her throat. "So, why do I believe I'm not just crazy?" She glanced at Garrus V., her eyebrows arched. "Because time and time again, I know things I otherwise have absolutely no reason to know, and I've been able to use this information to affect other people's lives. To affect change in the whole galaxy. I can hear Jane—the one in my head," she amended, glancing at his wife, "as clearly as I can anyone else now, but it came at a cost for her and the others. They stayed conscious—becoming even more in tune, if you will—as I died, and they felt every single thing Miranda and Wilson did to bring my charred corpse back to life. I know what crazy is, I hear it from her every day now." Dawn paused, holding up a hand. "Excuse me, I better correct myself before I get an ear full. Things were especially rough for her in the beginning, after I woke up in the Lazarus Project facility. Now, some days are worse than others."

"Do you …" Jane V.'s slurred voice interrupted Dawn's rambling, drawing her attention back to Jane V. "What do you dream?" Her gaze searched Dawn, something desperate lurking just under the surface.

Dawn shook her head, confused by the question. "Mostly things from their lives. Being different versions of me—sometimes even different men—going through the same hell over and over again. Fighting the same fights against geth, thugs, mercenaries, collectors, Cerberus." She waved her hand a little. "The reapers. But also … falling in love with people, building lasting friendships, and learning to let go when I can't save everyone." She shrugged, feeling a little helpless, clearly not having the answers the other woman sought. "I think it's more them dreaming than me, but it feels just as real."

"Fuck," Jane V. whispered, letting go of her husband's hand and leaned over her knees.

" _Is she … what's she doing?"_

Dawn licked her lips, ignoring Jane's question. Instead, she stayed focused on Jane V., sensing something important there, something the other woman dealt with that might … just might, if she got damn lucky, help things make sense. "EDI's been working with Legion and Mordin, and they seem to think it's possible—they're not sure, but it's possible, when Jane activated the Crucible, it triggered some sort of tear in the fabric of reality between parallel universes." She licked her lips again, fighting to keep her tone even. "But you lived through it. You're not … you're not a voice in my head … and you don't have voices in yours … so maybe you're not really connected to this thing, but there might still be some way we can help each other." Dawn sat down next to Thane, sliding her hand over his knee as she gripped the leather of his pants, using him to anchor herself. "Tell me about your dreams? Please?"

"I see a world blanketed in fog." Jane V. kept her voice hushed, barely even a whisper as she clenched her hands between her knees. "A world of the dead." She lifted a hand, waving it in Thane's direction before tucking it back between her knees, never lifting her head to meet anyone's gaze.

"You mean—the others start having reoccurring dreams after the reapers attack Earth. A forest filled with fog and whispers of the dead," she said, glancing at Thane and squeezing his leg. "Thane, Mordin, Ashley or Kaidan, maybe Wrex if things went really bad on Virmire? Sometimes others. Ghostly figures who seem to stay just out of reach … and a little boy they saw on Earth. Is that what you mean?"

"Dennis. His name was Dennis." Jane V. shrugged, just barely a tick of her shoulders.

Jane hummed in the back of Dawn's mind, mulling the name over. " _We never knew … never got the chance to ask."_

Jane V. continued, her voice barely above a whisper, but somehow deafening in the stillness of the room. "And I don't know about after the reapers attacking. I was trapped there ever since I … died." She paused, seeming to trudge through her emotions to find the words. "I'm in my memories, towns I've been to, buildings from my past." She frowned. "And it's empty, filled with a fog that seemed to be alive, choking me. And," she said, her gaze turning to linger on Thane. "And shadows of the dead."

Thane dipped his head and gently cleared his throat. "If you're finding my presence here … too burdensome for you, I can take my leave."

"Yeah, no." She rubbed her neck, and her husband reached out, caressing her back as she turned her gaze to her feet. "Sorry. Still a bit of an adjustment for me."

"You needn't apologize." Thane took Dawn's hand when she reached for him. "I'm certain the man you knew would be honored to have you carry him in your memories." He glanced at her as he brushed his thumb over her knuckles.

Dawn sat back against the couch, glancing over at Garrus when he finally decided to sit down next to her again. He put his hand on her knee and squeezed a little, but didn't say anything. Leaning into his side, she closed her eyes, letting herself feel the swirl of emotions coming from the horde of Shepards. She watched as Jane raced through the available memories, searching for something matching Jane V.'s descriptions.

" _It's not here, Dawn. I'm sorry. None of us experienced this, unless it's in one of the ones you absorbed, but I think I'd remember something so different. I looked anyway, but it's just not here,"_ said Jane before hesitating. " _I don't think she can help us, not with this, at least."_

"I'm sorry," Dawn finally said, the sound of defeat in her own voice making her want to cringe. "We've never experienced those dreams."

Jane V. nodded and sighed as she leaned back, her head tilted up to the ceiling. "I'm not surprised. By the sounds of it, there are quite a few differences between us."

* * *

 **Parable**

Jane could hear a forced calm within Dawn's shallow breaths, knowing the effort well enough from her own times of trying to keep from falling apart at the seams. Hell, she'd already had her very own outburst, no thanks to the rum in her system, so she couldn't expect the same not to happen in return from the other Shepard.

 _Shepards, apparently._

"I'd really like to explore those differences, as much as you're comfortable." At Dawn's words, Jane lowered her head to look at the trio across from her and felt a sort of envy. Sure, Dawn was fucked up, but the other two? They still hadn't seen the horrors of the war yet. "I think there's a chance something you tell me might help me break this cycle I'm in." _Good luck learning anything from my mistakes, lady._ "Help me live through the war, too."

Jane held back her dry laugh.

 _Live through it? Hell, even we barely managed that. Lost a good few pieces of our bodies too._

 _Then there's my friends, my family, that I lost because I fucked up over and over._

With Jane's delayed response, Dawn continued, serious in her tone, but with a hint of desperation in her eyes as she looked solely at Jane. "Or maybe… help me make sure I stay dead."

Jane gave a slight nod to the look in the woman's violet eyes. Soldier to soldier, this needed to end, that look said; to hell with what the others thought. She, too, wanted to just be over with the damn war at many times, be done with the fucked up shit afterward, and she couldn't really imagine being through it over multiple times as different people. She wasn't sure it'd do anything, but she could try.

At Dawn's side, Thane turned to look over the woman, and Jane figured if the situation was the same as her own reality, he of all people would understand the serenity in death. Dawn's Garrus, however, definitely didn't like the thought, growling, but she didn't look to him or acknowledge his protest. Probably for the best considering Jane knew the Vakarians well enough to know that conversation wouldn't end well. Different realities or not, she'd seen enough of this Garrus to know that he could be just as stubborn as her own mate.

Drumming her fingers on her knee and hearing the slight thunk of them against the metal of her artificial leg beneath her pants, she looked to her husband. "I… uh… well. We already know the Leviathan thing is different. A lot." She returned her gaze to the trio, looking between Dawn and Garrus, then Dawn and Thane. "Did anyone go down with you?"

"No, there's just one barely working diving mech there." Dawn shook her head as Jane looked to her mate with a shrug at the question in his eyes of why something small like that would be different. "But instead of just one showing up to greet me like they did with Jane and the others, or even just the three total that usually show their ugly mugs… it's like they called every fucking one they knew to come to the party. They were everywhere. I don't even know how many. They knew something was wrong with me the second their minds touched mine. They could feel Jane and the others."

"Right. Well, the mech that we found was a mining mech, two person. One to work the hands and the other the feet or something like that." Jane lifted her hand from her knee and shrugged before dropping it and looking to Garrus to take his hand. "This idiot wanted to join me." She looked back to Dawn. "Needless to say, the dive wasn't the worst thing to happen to us out there. Sure, we didn't see a shit ton of them, but whichever one we did see fucked us up." Unsure how to tell the story accurately, Jane wrinkled her nose and hummed in thought. "Shit, it's hard to put it."

"It connected us," Her husband provided, unhelpfully, and Jane looked to him in exasperation.

 _Thanks, that was helpful and definitely says what I had at the tip of my tongue._

Dawn glanced between the two, finally settling on Garrus, which was good, because Jane still had no clue how to explain without jumbling up the specifics which she usually just ignores in exchange for action. "Connected you? Like, what? Psychically?"

Jane couldn't help the snort and smirk. "No, we can do that all on our own."

Her mate flicked his unscarred mandible down at her before turning to a confused Dawn, her brow raised. "She's talking sex." He shook his head before squeezing Jane's hand, his thumb caressing the back of her knuckles.

"What the hell does a psychic connection have to do with sex? For fuck's sake, thank the gods neither of those two can hear my thoughts while we're screwing." She glanced at Thane and grinned slightly. "Ah, making love."

Thane merely chuckled softly and shook his head, giving Jane a pang of sadness. She tended to get a similar reaction from her crude jokes. Sure, not in a sexual way with the man, but it was often fun to live with such a diverse crew, to get different reactions to her very different means of command. She looked between the two lovers as the sounds of whispers engulfed her, but a gentle tug at her hand drew her back from that void.

"Right…" She cleared her throat and shook it off. "Yeah, sorry. Rum talking and making an idiot out of me. Been awhile since I, technically, got into a contest of seeing who can drink the most out of a bottle."

"We were having a contest? How come no one told me?" Dawn smirked, lifting a brow, and Jane huffed a soft laugh before frowning. She was downing rum like it was water for various reasons, one of those being a dead man still watching her with eyes that almost seemed empty in the oh so wrong and dim light.

 _How many times did those eyes stare at me through the fog? How many times did his ghost whisper for me to join him and the others, to convince me that it'd have been easier to just give up? How many times do they_ _ **continue**_ _to haunt me?_

Rubbing a scuff on her pant leg, she became serious. "Yeah. They did something when they got into our heads. It was like they connected us to talk to us at one time. I saw him and he saw me as they used some mind trick to pick out faces of people we knew to threaten and insult us."

"They always do that." Dawn waved her hand a little at her own head. "The mind fuck thing. Using people you've seen, generally speaking the faces of their thralls, to project themselves into our heads. They used the Council for me. I think they were trying to impose the idea of authority," she said before snorting in amusement, and Jane, too held back her own opinion on the Council, "because I made them nervous. We - we made them nervous."

Her husband pulled his mandibles close to his face. "They first tried to use their victims, but when we were defiant, they used our own images against us. They tried to break us by showing us they could take control of us or tried to force us to submit through intense pain." He growled low and squeezed Jane's hand again. "But joining us only weakened their chance to control us."

"It also left us with some fucked up side effects," Jane added as she rubbed at the phantom pain in a knee that didn't exist, still feeling the effects of the shock from the limbs' removal. "I can hear him in my head sometimes."

"Not all the time? So, you can control it?" Dawn glanced to her Garrus at her opposite side and tapped her temple. "Can you imagine being wired into this hot mess?"

Her - _what is he to her, technically? Weird calling him her Garrus…_ \- Garrus chuffed and reached out to graze a knuckle over the same spot Dawn had just tapped. "If it'd help, I think I'd manage."

 _Boy… wonder what they'd say if they found out the same way we did. Nearly shit myself suddenly hearing Garrus' voice in my head, can't imagine that_ _ **on top**_ _of what Dawn already hears._

She shrugged and lifted the corner of her mouth in an unconvincing smile of confidence. "Yes?"

"No," her husband corrected. His mandibles quivered at his jaw before he explained. "It usually happens during high stress situations. Combat, usually."

"And it wasn't too fun learning about it the first time." She smiled at her mate and bumped her shoulder to his side. "And it gives him a chance to yell at me about my tactics even in my own head." Looking back to the trio, she cleared her throat and tried for a more professional tone. Public shows of affection in front of other worldly copies of Garrus and Thane was starting to get awkward, so she decided to keep it on the downlow. "Anyway, yeah. They left us connected and messed with our heads. Left us with this weird… well." Fidgeting, she wondered how to put it without sounding like a vid. "I can… control things."

"Control things?" The younger Garrus - _no, that doesn't quite work either. Damn_ \- flared his mandibles.

Jane barely heard Thane, and would probably have missed his soft words if not for looking his way in time to see his lips move. "Fascinating," he said with a whisper of breath, as if not wanting to interrupt the conversation. Dawn, though, included him as she rubbed her hand over his knee before turning it in offer to him. He took it, lifted it to his lips, and kissed it tenderly.

 _Funny how alike they all are, and how so much like Garrus he is to be questioning every step of the way. Can't say the same for Thane's public shows of affection, but I can picture it given the situation. God, I feel even more out of place, like I'm a voyeur here. And not in a fun, let's do this again way._

She chuckled under her breath before her thoughts could start to wonder - _don't want to drunkenly fall down that rabbit hole_ \- and looked up to her husband with a warm smile. Even if they didn't show it in the moment to these - _let's face it_ \- strangers, she knew their own shows of affection all over their own universe proved how sappy their own love life was. She couldn't blame Dawn for expressing it on her own damn ship, in her own damn cabin.

 _So long as the clothes stay on… Don't really want to see Thane in that light. I know his son, for crying out loud. I want to look him in the eyes when we get back without thinking 'hey, funny story. I know how your dad looks naked!'_

 _...If we get back..._

"Yeah," Jane said forcefully, trying to steer her mind back to the task at hand. "I don't know how to really explain it without actually doing it to someone." She lifted her hand and let a darker form of biotics wrap around her hand, forming into a tighter orb of energy. "I tried to throw a pull at someone and, out of nowhere, they started fighting their own people." Huffing a humorless laugh, she let the energy flicker before flowing over her hand again. "May have overcharged it sometimes on accident and blew someone's brains out."

"Sounds like the Dominate Morinth uses." Dawn was quiet a moment, her eyes unfocusing for a moment. "Uh," she sighed, "there were a few Shepards who decided to let Morinth kill Samara and took Morinth onboard instead. That probably shouldn't leave this room." Considering the mess that could bring out, Jane nodded in agreement. "A few of the others were able to do what you're talking about too," Dawn said, lifting her brows and tilting her head at the energy dancing over Jane's hand. "But I can't say it looked anything like that."

"Heh, yeah. Don't really know why I get that from the Leviathan. Maybe those assholes rubbed off on me." Cutting off the flow of energy, the biotic orb in her palm dissipated and she looked to her mate. "Do you want to tell them about yourself?"

Garrus shrugged with a low chuckle. "It's nothing..."

Jane didn't quite hear what he said, noticing that Dawn, too, had become restless. Just around the point in their conversation earlier about meeting the Leviathan, she had begun to notice Dawn rubbing at her head more frequently. She seemed to be shifting around in her seat enough to be getting her male company's attentions and concern. Both could easily be explained from the rum, as Jane, too often built up a headache from drinking too much too fast. It also explained the look of needing to take a piss, for self-explanatory reasons. What is didn't explain, though, was the growing frequency of these movements and discomfort without anyone doing more than a comforting touch or glance her way.

Something suddenly seemed very wrong when Jane considers the whole picture.

Glancing to her mate, she blinked and looks between the group. "Sorry, what?"

Garrus looked her over, trying to read her, and she fought not to look over to Dawn, giving him any reason to go back into detective mode. It wasn't really the time nor the place to start probing, especially when something very obvious was happening between the trio as the men's attentions to Dawn grew from providing a caring presence in a time of need to an attempt to try and soothe a child on the verge of a meltdown - as Jane knew all too well from her own little monsters back home. She tried not to look too closely at the duo's constantly moving touches, from a hand resting on Dawn's knee to rubbing her back as the other abandons her hand to stroke her hair, lest she make her suspicions of what's not being said known.

Her husband's cold blue eyes didn't miss her fleeting look, however, and followed her eyes to take in the sight of the trio that left her with the weary look she was sure was on her face. Of course he'd had caught it long before Jane ever did, but her own reactions must have made him kick into action. He'd always been suspicious of people, always watching, but never moving into dealing with it unless whatever in question was bad enough to get her own attention.

He flicked a mandible at the sight before rumbling and saying something in that older turian dialect. Sure, she knew some of it, and could translate pretty well, but only when he talked slower. This was definitely not one of those times, however, and she missed the exacts of what he said. There was a 'we' and a 'be', but hell if that helped her understand a damn thing.

Dawn raised her eyebrows over towards Jane's husband - _at least she's not in a complete breakdown… yet_ \- before glancing between the two turians. "Oh, that's just not fair," she said, any kind of real weight to her words lost in her obvious pain.

When the other Garrus responded with something in that same dialect, Dawn glared and he chuckled as he shook his head. Trying to understand enough to explain what they're saying to the other Shepard, Jane managed to catch 'her' and 'there', but, again, nothing useful.

"Okay, stop it, that's not allowed." Dawn groused, lifting her head to glare first at her own Garrus before shifting that stern stare to Jane's husband.

At that admonishment, Jane couldn't help but chuckle and looked to her mate. "See? I'm not the only one who hates that."

Thane glanced between the two turians before tightening his grip on Dawn's hand to draw her attention. "I believe Mr. Vakarian is only expressing concern for you… or perhaps because of you, siha. If I'm not mistaken, Jane is being particularly bothersome to you at the moment, and it's beginning to show." Garrus, on the other hand, gave Thane an exasperated look over Dawn's shoulders, obviously not too keen on his and his older counterpart's secret being revealed.

Jane nodded slightly, hoping to catch Dawn's eyes. "I think maybe you might need a break?"

An easy out, to have the other Shepard be the one to end the conversation, but, really, Jane was having quite the difficulty keeping her thoughts on the present the longer she stuck around the dead man in the room. The more he spoke, the stronger her nightmares became as they clawed at her, trying to drag her down into her hell. Her husband, too, saw in her the changes and moved much like Dawn's partners. His attempts were just as obvious as the duo's as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders to hold her closer as he purred against her temple in a display of affection he normally wouldn't throw around in the company of people still very much strangers. Last thing they all needed was _two_ women breaking out into a panicked state with two equally protective turians in the same room.

Dawn smiled ruefully, and Jane got her answer even before seeing the woman shake her head. "It probably won't help. She has … her moments. Right now, it's a bitchy moment. Technically, I'm supposed to be letting her speak - acting as her voice - to others that know of her existence. Dr Chakwas thinks it'll help to stabilize her, and it does help some, but trust me, no one wants to hear the crazy coming from her right now."

"Guessing she's not too happy about you being with a Shepard that's not in your head?"

"That about sums it up."

Jane sighed and leaned back in the cushions of the couch, rubbing her forehead with her hand. "So… I guess you want to know more? Go ahead, ask away."

 _But really don't because, dammit, this is getting hard to do._

There was a pause, in which Garrus purred and caressed her hand with his thumb, before Dawn spoke again. "It can wait, if you're getting tired."

"Honestly?" She dropped her eyes back to the group. "I'm not tired so much as… as I think I need some more alcohol."

"I can do that, but … Jack might decide she hates us later." Dawn chuckled softly. "Thoughts on vodka?"

"I'm already too drunk to care." Jane shrugged and Dawn stood, heading towards her bed.

"She won't be as pissed if we drink it straight from the bottle." A clinking came from her direction as she shuffled through the liquor cabinet. "Your call, but according to Jack," her Garrus joined in as they both said, "glasses are for pussies."

Jane laughed. Good to hear Jack was friendly enough with Dawn to insult her drinking methods. She couldn't deny that having the prickly woman around wasn't, in it's own way, exciting and an experience all in itself. To see that this Garrus not only got along, but was fucking Jack didn't surprise her so much as it became interesting. Her own, husband, after all, didn't tend to grow a bond strong enough to know Jack's drinking habits - let alone get in the crazy biotic's pants.

 _Then again, Garrus was a bit too drugged up most of the time during that mission while Jack was aboard to really 'converse' with any of the crew._

After a moment, Dawn returned with a large bottle of the clear alcohol. Sitting down, she offered the bottle in question and Jane took it, popping off the cap and tossing it onto the table with a clink. "Did Ash ever tell you the Williams' tradition?"

"About Armistice Day?"

Jane took a large drink before grunting in the negative and offering the bottle back. As Dawn downed her own drink, Jane explained it as Ash once told her. "So, according to her, there's this long standing tradition in her family. I think it's not just for military members, but I can't remember exactly." She drummed her fingers against the false ache in her leg before shrugging. "Fuck it, that doesn't matter." She took the offered bottle again. "The Williams will buy the cheapest, most disgusting alcohol in the joint and everyone, _everyone_ , has to take a shot of it before any other drinking can commence."

She downed a long gulp before watching both hers and Dawn's Garrus down their drinks almost in tandem. She'd have laughed if not for leaning halfway over the table to hand the bottle back over to Dawn. Thane, on the other hand - and ever the gentleman - still nursed his first drink when even the two turians poured themselves another.

Dawn stood, bottle to her lips as she drank again. Swallowing, she stepped around Thane's legs and came to sit beside Jane so they could share the bottle without having to topple over their drinking partners. Hands free, Dawn leaned down, untied her boot laces before pulling them loose enough to kick off in some random direction across the room.

"I didn't really spend much time talking to Ashley. We didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things." Jane snorted in understanding at that, swallowing her gulp of vodka before offering Dawn the bottle back. Dawn drank and shrugged as she swallowed. "Things got a little less tense after I broke her nose."

The younger Garrus chuckled at the apparent memory as Jane laughed, wishing she'd done the same to her own Ashley Williams in the beginning.

"But we were never very close. She was with some of the others, though." She tapped her head to explain and Jane hummed in understanding, watching Dawn take another drink before handing over the bottle. "Some of the men had a thing with her, even."

Jane snorted as her husband clicked in disbelief. "Right, because I bet some of them were okay with the whole 'can't tell the animals from the aliens' thing." She shrugged and took a big gulp before waving the bottle around as she talked, very careful not to spill any in her exclamation. "Damn! I wish I had punched her instead of cussing her out. Or, I know, made out with my turian husband." She jostled Garrus a bit before offering the bottle back to Dawn. "She'd probably have shit a brick then."

Dawn lifted her shoulder in a half shrug. "Those other Shepards weren't all as awesome as I am, clearly. But yeah, I have memories of being with her as a man. Trust me, not the most pleasant moments. I'm all for women, but Ashley… well, physically she was attractive but I couldn't really get past her xenophobia in the beginning. I know if she'd lived, though, she wouldn't be quite so bad about it now." She glanced towards her Garrus. "The aliens eventually rubbed off on her." She took a somber drink before saying, "I didn't punch her over that, though." Pulling her feet up to the couch, Dawn wrapped her arms around her knees. "Gods, how long have you two been married?"

It was her husband that answered, setting his half empty tumbler on his knee. "If you're using our timeline, then eight years."

Jane nodded and looked to Dawn. "We married in '82."

Dawn's mouth hung open and Jane had to grab the bottle for fear that Dawn would drop it in her shock. The woman looked between Jane and her husband a few times before she snapped her attention to her own Garrus, even though her response seemed directed at Jane. "When did… how… I never met him any earlier than during his investigation into Saren… I don't." She winced and pressed her fingers to her forehead. "I don't."

Dawn stood, almost stumbling and falling over the low table. "Fuck." Her clenched eyes opened as she took in Jane and her mate once more before turning to Thane, fear in her eyes.

"Shepard," EDI's voice filled the cabin and Jane set the bottle down, sure that some shitstorm was forming. "Your biometric scans are indicating that Jane may be attempting to take over. Do you require assistance?"

"I-" Dawn's skin was paler than normal, a drastic change from the slightly flushed appearance of being pleasantly drunk, and she trembled all over, shaking from head to toe.

Thane immediately opened a vial he must have pulled from his jacket, unleashing a foul smell as he ghosted it under Dawn's nose, but it didn't seem to do… whatever it was supposed to do besides make Jane's stomach churn. Dawn swatted Thane's hand - and the vial within it - out of her way, but Garrus was quick to jab a needle into her arm, injecting her with whatever it held.

Almost instantly, Dawn went lax, passing out. Thane caught her collapsing form as Garrus turned to Jane and her husband. She knew that look well enough to hold her hands up in clear sign she meant no harm as she slowly stood to get the hell out of the combat zone. Hell, she even stepped back to give Thane room to set Dawn down.

"Well, I know when our welcome has worn out." Jane cleared her throat at the sudden tension in the air from the younger Garrus and - though che couldn't see him - the responding attitude coming from her own, now standing mate at her back. "I wish you guys well, and let her know I hope she feels better, but, let's face it, I'm useless in here."

"Tali and Kal's quarters have been made ready for you, Mrs. Vakarian." EDI helpfully - _good to know she's just as helpful and aware as our own_ \- offered before addressing the others. "I've notified Dr. Chakwas, she is on her way."

Jane nodded in understanding and assurance to the other two that they were leaving. Backing away, she let Garrus take her back as she turned and headed for the door, barely hearing the lyric sound of turian being spoken at her back. Outside of the cabin, she released a breath and waited for the lift to come up with the doctor so they could take it down.

"Boy, what a fucked up situation we've found ourselves in."

"You said that when we faced giant murderous machines." Her husband provided and she glared over her shoulder at him as the lift reached this level.

As the doors swung open, Jane and her husband stood out of Chakwas' way to let her rush into the captain's cabin, a medical tote in hand. "I think we should leave them be. EDI? Is there anyone else who needs the lift for the… incident?"

"Miranda and Mordin have also been notified, but use of the elevator is still available. This event is not cataloged as an emergency."

"I meant more out of courtesy to whoever needs to get up here, but thanks," she said as she followed her mate into the lift. Once in, she hit the command for the crew deck. "Fucked up, indeed."


	6. Someone to Talk To

**Someone to Talk To**

 **Parable**

The crew deck laid comfortably bare when the lift had brought Garrus and his mate down thanks to the late hour. The mess hall, usually a bustling room during the simulated daytime hours, had been abandoned by the majority of the crew as they took to their bunks for sleep, and those not turning in for the night where at their stations as they worked the 'graveyard shift', as the human term went.

Given how talkative Jane often became when drinking, the empty deck was a boon after he just watched his tiny mate manage to down enough hard liquor to put them in the danger of her slipping some important, and secret, information to anyone within range. While he wasn't too concerned with her possibly shouting across the deck about the current mental capacity of the running commander of this ship, it didn't bode well for the two of them if the resulting backlash happened before they managed to get off this damn ship and back to their own reality.

Though she wore it well, Jane was drunk. First went her self-control, which she illustrated by nearly getting into a physical altercation with the other Shepard, then came her tendency to not quite listen when someone speaks, like when she confused psychic connections with physical ones. For her sake, Dawn Shepard's mental breakdown and resulting incapacitation did what he didn't want to stand up and do. In the presence of anyone who would be looking for a sign of weakness - pointedly the two males in the room just as quiet and as observant as himself - he was worried about making a scene of stopping Jane from falling into the pit of her self-made hell. Had he moved, he'd only have brought more attention to her state and, as in any questionable predicament, shown a weakness better off kept close and hidden.

Dawn Shepard 'losing her shit' - as Jane put it in the elevator - had shown Garrus the responses of the two males in the room. They were as attuned to her as Garrus was his own mate, and he had no doubt that, despite the woman's thoughts on death for the cause, at least the other version of himself would hesitate to stand by and let her go through with it. This man may be a better turian in this universe, but his reaction up in the Captain's Cabin spoke enough of a struggle to accept Dawn Shepard being harmed - whether by her own choosing or not. It only took one glance to the younger man to see his reaction when she had mentioned death to figure it out, even if he tried to hide it.

It wasn't easy to hide the pain of losing a mate, no matter the specifics of the bond.

When they arrived in the port observation, his and Jane's armors and weapons had already been laid out. While their armors didn't necessarily hold any valuable data or value to be found by prying eyes, his prized weapon held a special place by his side and under his care. As a result, Garrus was insistent that his Widow merely be brought down there, its maintainance left to his hands only. Like hell would he let anyone tend to a weapon that saved his life a thousand times over. Especially on a ship that's no better than unknown territory despite its looks.

Jane, on the other hand, had no such qualms about her 'boomstick', as she called it. So long as it remained intact enough to fire and, barring that, bash anyone to death who got too close, she was happy. He had agreed to leave his armor and other weaponry to be cleaned and maintained by this other Jacob Taylor, but insisted on keeping his sidearm, and making Jane figure out where to put her own. Even if she had to hold it in the waistband of her pants, as the example she tried to use in protest, she would have a weapon on hand while he had both his own sidearm at hip and a blade concealed within his artificial arm.

Helping Jane to the bed, Garrus let her fall into a deep sleep knowing that he'd feel her discomfort through their mental connection should she become plagued with nightmares. Once he was sure of her even breaths and motionless form outlined by the low, natural light of the stars beyond the thick observation room's glass viewport, Garrus grabbed his battered Widow, some cleaning supplies left behind by the armory operative, and a maintenance kit from his armor for his prosthetics. It had become habit to check his and her prosthetics after battle just as he would their armors and weapons, but he could let Jane sleep for now and bother her to calibrate her legs later.

With a last glance towards her sleeping form, letting his visor read her vitals, Garrus flicked his mandibles in silent approval over her peaceful state. Hopefully, he thought as he walked towards the dim mess hall and took a seat to get to work, she would remain that way. It's been too long since she had known a night without nightmares and, though he'd have chosen otherwise, the heavy drinking and bit of camaraderie seemed to have helped.

Garrus laid out his tools along the table, setting his cleaning supplies out within reach before breaking down his Widow. Viewing it as no different from his own body, he disassembled it fluidly and without thought, fingers ghosting over the numerous and varied scars on its surface. He set down each piece and looked over the parts for a moment, humming in thought as he remembered the battles it joined him in. Picking up the modified scope, he brought it up to his uncovered eye to make sure none of that disgusting orb fluid managed to get into it.

As he clicked the gauge, mentally checking to see if it was thrown off in the jump - or whatever could be used to describe what happened to bring him and his wife here - he heard the rumble of the lift as it moved. From the sound of the reverberations in the shaft, it was descending. He was sure whoever it held was unlikely to be one of the routine crew because, if it was correct when he changed it to this Normandy's time, his visor still read in the middle of the shift.

Tilting his head to turn his uncovered ear towards the sound, he rumbled at his guess being proven right with the sound of a turian's stride. Strange, he considered, to hear his own gait and not even be standing, let alone moving. He watched the other version of himself round the corner, a tight pull to his mandibles Garrus recognized.

Unless he was blind up in the Captain's Cabin, this turian has bonded to a mate that, despite his best efforts, could not be repaired by his sheer will and stubbornness alone. He raged in helplessness, and it was not a feeling all that foreign to Garrus himself.

Prying, and getting enough of the situation to suit him, Garrus turned back to this task at hand. Wiping down the barrel in preparation for the cleaning rod, he heard the other turian stop for a breath before changing direction.

"Mind if I join you?" He heard the younger version of himself ask and he nodded, motioning to the seat before him and in the vague direction of the other man without looking up from scrubbing at a particular scuff.

 _Looks like yet another scar on this weapon_.

He looked up to the man and hummed in curiosity. "I have the distinct feeling tonight was not a first."

"No ... but if it helps, it was unexpected. Sorry for the commotion. I'm sure it's done nothing to help the two of you feel comfortable here." He sat, his back to the wall as expected. "It's been awhile since Jane pushed for control. I didn't think… I should've considered it a possibility, but things have been going better lately."

He lets the younger turian think over his guilt before speaking up. "Not a very easy thing to expect alternate versions of yourselves to appear. Let alone for Jane to be so different from Dawn and her circumstances."

 _Probably won't do anything. I know it wouldn't have made a damn to me at his age._

The other Garrus chuffed, his mandibles fluttering a moment. "I suppose not. Jane - sorry, her Jane - isn't exactly stable. She's been set off by less."

"And none too happy about the fact that someone doesn't fit the norm of live, die, repeat until you become a damn wreck." He shook his head and set the, now clean, barrel down. "But I don't suppose many get out of what we've all seen in one piece, let alone however many times Jane - or whoever - has."

"Hmm. I think it was really feeling Shepard - Dawn - die and the Lazarus Project that did her in. Before then, they struggled to communicate, and though Jane could see and hear what went on around Shepard, she didn't feel things." The man hands over a clean cloth when Garrus motioned silently for it. "Being awake for what Miranda did… I think it'd make anyone crazy."

Garrus flicked his unscarred mandible as he stilled and stared down at the rifle stock in his hands. The thought wasn't a good one, but it doesn't take physical torture to make one crazy. With all the hellish things the war still held for the Normandy crew, he wondered just how many more would be just as unstable as their commander. Just how many of them would be like ticking time bombs ready to be unleashed at the slightest provocation.

"I think it was…" the younger man said and Garrus looked up to his mirrored self, catching the slight fidget to the younger man's fingers as he looked over the disassembled Widow. "How did Shepard put it… 'the last straw' for Jane."

Chuckling, Garrus nodded and added what he's learned of human sayings from his own mate. "Before 'all hell broke loose and the shit hit the fan', as Jane loves to say." The man across from him laughed and nodded in agreement. "So, I have to ask. How did you miss out on the scars that never cease to attract the ladies?" he asked as he motioned to his own face, curious just how this Garrus Vakarian managed to miss a rocket becoming part of his diet.

The younger Garrus hummed and swallowed visibly. "She warned me…. She also warned me about Sidonis." Garrus didn't respond himself to that, merely clicking his mandibles against his chin.

 _Would've been a hell of a lot easier for me_.

The man cleared his throat. "So, when I finally got to Omega, I shot him the second he said his name." Garrus watched the other's visor flick with constant readings as he adds, "Killed him for something he never even had the chance to do, because she told me he would. I still formed a team, some of the same people, some different ones. Set up in a different district."

Garrus started to reassemble his weapon, lining up the modified pieces back together. At the differences from his own past, he merely hummed and nodded. "Makes sense. Use what information you're given."

Where he just wanted to find a death worth while, this man actually went in knowing what could await him, what he had to do, and picked up the slack that was created with Liara's death. Despite Garrus' refusal to allow anyone to join his crusade for death, idiots still followed him to the point he had no choice but to take them in and try to train them in order to not get themselves killed.

 _A whole lot of good that did._

The younger turian seemed to relax a little at the apparent agreement to his own thinking. "I don't think she was too happy about it when I told her." He scoffed. "She hasn't been too happy about a lot of the choices I made while she was dead."

"Then she doesn't know what you had to go through, what situations laid out those choices for you."

He hummed. "No, she's just stronger than I am. Always has been. And for awhile, I hated her for it, for making me watch her die. For having to be the one to find her and take her to our enemies. For having to spend two years struggling to keep faith that it wasn't all for nothing." He paused, running a hand over his crest. "I'd like to say I did the best I could under the circumstances, but it'd be a lie. I was in pain and I was angry, so I lashed out at everything around me. Drank too much, slept with too many women, killed people I probably shouldn't have… anything to dull the pain."

"On that, we are the same." Garrus set his reassembled rifle back down. "The pain was made worse the more I saw her, the closer she'd get to me, only to disappear when I tried to touch her. She came in my dreams, spoke to me from the shadows, and it got so bad I took stims to keep myself from ever sleeping until my body just passed out from exhaustion. Those were the only times I didn't dream, because I was in a deeper level of unconsciousness."

The younger man's hum is void of judgment, the two of them one in the same in their means of coping through their pain. "How did you two meet, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I don't," Garrus said with a chuckle and shook his head at the thought. "I was on patrol on the Presidium still and, right as I was about to head to the Academy to clock out, I was approached by a diplomat. _Apparently_ , a human woman was bothering her." He growled at the audacity. "Just by being out of place. Wanted me to run her off."

"...was she not supposed to be on the Presidium?"

"Let me ask you this first, Nassana Dantius." He lifted a brow plate at the younger man. "Did Shepard ever run into her? Did you ever get to see the kind of woman she is, or was?"

"We killed her sister, and then Thane killed her." The man rumbled deeply. "Shepard actually had a bit of a breakdown when she first met Dantius. It was the first time she had a…" he waved his hand and clicked his tongue, as if searching for the right words, "waking vision. She looked at the woman and saw how she'd die. It was before we'd met Thane."

Garrus nodded, the basics still the same. "She was the woman that wanted Jane off the Presidium."

At that, the younger turian chuffed in response, shaking his head in dismay. "Guess her life wasn't completely worthless."

"True." Rolling up his sleeve, Garrus grabbed for his tool kit. "Any more probing into my life you want to do, detective?" He smirked, finally being able to tease another C-Sec officer like Jane often did him.

 _Not too many of us left in my life. Strange how Jane and I now run a mercenary organization C-Sec would often look down at as 'against regulations and protocol'._

Just before opening up the panelling for his fingers' conduit, Garrus caught his younger self run his eyes over the Widow. "Your Widow's seen better days." He flicked a mandible. "Suppose you have, too."

Garrus couldn't help it, he laughed and nodded. "That obvious, is it?" He rumbled and flexed his artificial fingers, testing the connection. "That Widow has been with me since Jane gave it to me during our hunt for Saren. I took it with me to Omega, Palaven, Menae, and to every battle during the war. Now, it joins me on any contract Jane and I take on."

"Contract? You sound like Thane. Do I have 'assassin' to look forward to adding to my list of skills?" He flicked his mandible in jest, and Garrus chuckled, shrugging.

"Depends on if a job pays enough." He lifted a hand to stop the need for further explanation. "But I leave the vent climbing for someone much smaller."

"So, your wife, then?"

That, and the thought of Jane ever doing something with any amount of stealth, made Garrus laugh hard enough he had to stop his work on his arm. "You _obviously_ don't know Jane." He snorted at the proud grin on the younger man's face and set the small electric conductor on the table. "Jane would much rather rush in and shoot or punch anything that moves, damn all consequences. If not that, she does this…" he sticks up his thumb and extends his forefinger, "thing with her hand, and expects me to be fast enough on the draw to take whoever out with surprise."

"I bet you've never let her down." The other Garrus hummed. "Vanguard. Shepard's training is Vanguard, but she likes the sniper rifle too much not to know how to be quiet when she needs to." He flicked his mandibles, tilting his head a little. "And she's been training with Thane lately."

With the mention of the drell, Jane's nervousness from upstairs flashed in Garrus' mind. He rumbled low and gave a curt nod. "Yeah. Jane didn't much train with Thane, their styles are just so different, but she often spoke with him about religion."

The other man shifted slightly, taking a glance towards the medbay for no apparent reason. "It was his suggestion. He thought that through training and meditation, he could help her get a grip on Jane. Keep things from getting even more out of control. I don't really know if it's helped or not, there's nothing to compare it to, but if it has… I'd hate to see where she'd be now if he hadn't made the offer."

"If it works, then no complaints," Garrus said as means of simplifying than actually agreeing. How would he know if any of what these people are doing is any good? He just saw one outburst and, by the looks of things, it wasn't all that 'controlled'.

"One complaint." When Garrus looked up, he saw the younger man's mandibles flare as his attention returned to himself. "Her training alone already made her hell to take down when need be. The first time I dealt with Jane in the flesh," he said, scoffing with an obvious bitterness and distaste, "she shot me before Thane got her in a choke hold." He pointed to the faint scar on his neck.

"And now this Jane can also train with Thane through Dawn," Garrus concluded, it only making sense that, if this other Shepard could see and hear through Dawn, then she - or it, or whatever the Shepard was - could learn as Dawn learned. "Sounds like a double edged sword."

"Exactly. So far we've been lucky. That incident was the worst to date." The younger turian touched the base of his skull. "She freaked out on Shepard when we let Mordin implant a device he designed out of collector tech to disrupt the seekers' ability to view us as anything but more collectors. Jane took over and tried to cut it out of her head. EDI alerted me to her odd behavior, and Thane was with me at the time…. She really wanted the tech out." He dropped his hand to the table. "When we got to her cabin, she'd locked herself in the bathroom. I could smell her blood through the door. Thane went in through the ceiling panels, I tried to talk her down, but she pulled her gun on me when EDI opened the door. She swears she didn't really mean to shoot, but I think she did. To be fair, I lunged for the gun. But still, she made this whole point about my not being 'her Garrus.'"

"You see it as she has no reason to really care about anything but Dawn breaking this cycle. Meaning you and everyone else are expendable to this Jane." Garrus growled. "And to hell with what the consequences of that are. No wonder you despise this woman, thing, in Shepard's head. So would I."

The other man's mandibles fluttered and he smirked. "Sounds about right, Detective Vakarian." Chuffing, he glanced down at his hands. "We both know I shouldn't be talking about all of this. And we both know I'm not going to shut up, either. So, hmmm, thanks." He opened and closed his fists, and Garrus let him take his time before his younger self said, "It's more than that… I think ending the cycle is _all_ that matters to Shepard now, too. I mean, I know she cares about what happens to everyone else, too, but in the end … She doesn't want to end up like Jane, and I can't really blame her." He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Jane is - she's trying. I guess. For awhile though, she wasn't. She thought the only way to save herself was to conquer Shepard. She put the woman I love through hell. Deliberately terrorizing her. And when she does take control, it's like switching places. Shepard gets locked inside with all the others, and from what she's said, most of them are far worse off than Jane." He glanced at the medbay again. "Either way, even when she's not trying to, just being there, Jane's killing her."

Garrus understood the pull his younger self describes, in a way. Even if his own mate isn't suffering from multiple reincarnations in her mind vying for control - if that's what this Shepard really does have - Jane, too, had to fight a war not for herself or for anyone she cared for, but for the masses without faces, names, or meanings to her. How many times did Garrus just want her to fight for herself, not make the call to put herself in the line of fire for others she'd never know? How many times did Jane choose the path that'd often ended in pain in their personal lives in order to do what was best for the galaxy?

Drumming his talons on the table a moment, he thought about what Dawn Shepard had been looking for in his wife with her questions. Whether or not Jane would ever admit to even herself, reliving the war for this woman, to try and save a woman who only wanted everything to end - even if it means losing her own life - is only going to bring back the visions that haunt her dreams. Even years after the war, he must hold her in the dark hours of the night as she cries and screams over the dead.

"I don't know what Jane saw up on the Citadel when she activated the Crucible, but if I can, I'd like to try and keep her from reliving the war." He looked up to the unscarred turian across from him. "I can answer nearly everything except that, but like hell if I'll put Jane through it because she's too damn stubborn to say she can't take it."

"I honestly doubt it'll help either way. I thought it might, but after tonight …." He sighed and nodded. "I'll talk to Shepard in the morning."

"We might not think it'll help, but your Shepard hopes it does. That hope is enough to make Jane think the relapse is worth it."

The other man rumbled in agreement. "I hear you." He cleared his throat, pushing down the faint sound of a keen that he couldn't quite stifle. "So, metal arm?"

Garrus saw no reason to dwell on the pain and nodded. "How about you find us something to drink and I'll answer any questions about my beautiful physique you have."

Humming in thought, the younger Garrus motioned to the main battery. "I think I have another bottle of brandy in the main battery?"

* * *

 **TLADOCS**

Garrus pushed himself up from the table, already chastising himself for getting so comfortable with the other turian. He needed it, though. Someone to talk to, someone not … invested. It didn't hurt he was effectively talking to himself, either. He still struggled to wrap his mind around the concept.

He made his way to the main battery, moving as quietly as he could, knowing he'd wake the batarian anyway. The overheads were dimmed for the night, the track lights leaving the room with just enough of an ambient glow for them to get to their stations in case of an emergency, but not enough to really get in the way of a solid night's sleep. Two feet into the room, and Grundan Krul rolled over, his black eyes tracking Garrus' movements in silence.

"Sorry," Garrus muttered, waving a hand at his friend. "I'll be out of here in a few seconds. Go back to sleep."

"Everything alright?" Grundan Krul yawned, exposing long rows of little, pointed teeth.

"Yeah … just looking for … ah!" Garrus pulled the bottle out from behind his cot and held it up. He rarely spent the night in the main battery anymore, but he kept a cot in there anyway, just in case. "Night."

"Night." Grundan Krul rolled back over, hiding his face in the darkness of the shadows next to the wall.

Garrus left the main battery, taking a few steps before stopping in his tracks and fluttering his mandibles. Jack sat in the spot he'd just vacated, eyeing the older turian with the devilish, amused smirk of hers plastered on her face. The turian didn't seem to be paying her any attention as he worked to calibrate the mechanics of his prosthetic arm.

 _Fantastic._

Garrus started moving again, the last thing anyone needed was for Jack to be left alone with either of their visitors for too long of a time. He loved her, but her people skills were seriously lacking and she had a way of finding buttons she ought not push, and then stomping them to pieces. Dawn would kill him, and then kill Jack.

He cleared his throat, drawing their attention, and flared his mandibles as he approached the table. "Jack," he said, sitting back down sideways so he could face her, "can't sleep?"

She scoffed, a derisive sound she used when she wanted to tell him he'd asked a stupid question. Still, she turned that smile of hers on him and he couldn't help but to grin right back. She knew she treaded into territory Dawn wouldn't want her in, and she didn't give a damn. It's what he'd come to love about the woman; her fuck-it-all attitude gave him perspective, helped him to relax when it felt like the weight of the galaxy rested on his shoulders, especially during the times when things with Dawn wound him up so tight he thought he might snap and fall apart completely. It defied all reason for him to be with someone as lawless and feisty as Jack, but he tried not to think about it too closely. Complicated didn't even begin to adequately describe his life, if he found a few moments of peace with the woman, why should he question it?

"Hmmm. Don't suppose you're here by accident." He flicked his mandibles and glanced at the other Garrus. "Did you ask if he minded before you sat down?"

"Fuck no. Why should I?" Her grin widened as she turned her attention back to the older turian. "I'll sit wherever the fuck I want to sit, I was on the ship first."

The grizzled turian shrugged, not really bothering to lift his gaze from his work. "You act like I've never met any version of Jack before."

"No," Garrus said, dragging the word out, "but I bet you haven't met a version of Jack who, if given half a chance, might try to sleep with you just to make the comparison between the two of us."

"Fuck off." Jack eyed the bottle in his hand, the light upturn of the corner of her mouth giving truth to his words. "You gonna open it or just talk shit?"

 _Spirits, but I'm glad she's here. Truth is, I probably shouldn't be alone with him either. I've already said too much. I wonder what dark thoughts are keeping her up tonight._

 _I shouldn't have pushed Dawn to tell them about Jane. Obviously his wife is just as much of a mess as Dawn is, in her own way, and neither of them can make it through the conversations it'd take to find the one little speck of information that might be able to help. Jane wouldn't have gotten so worked up and pushed against Dawn like she did if not for my brilliant idea._

The older turian looked up, glancing at the brandy. "She's got a point."

Garrus chuffed, flicking a mandible at the other turian. "For that, I won't offer to let you use a glass."

"Glasses are for pussies anyway, give me that." Jack grabbed for the bottle, but he pulled it out of her reach, giving her a playful growl.

"It's mine. I'll open it." Garrus popped open the top and took a swig. "You know it's not going to do much for you, even if it doesn't make you sick."

She snatched the bottle from him and shrugged. "I'd say go get my bottle from Shepard's cabin … but I heard everything when EDI called Mordin up earlier." Staring at the collector in the tech labs became one of Jack's favorite pastimes when she couldn't sleep. It didn't seem to bother Mordin, so long as she didn't start touching his things, and she said it helped her think. "I'm out downstairs right now, so whatever." She put the bottle to her lips, tilting her head back to take a swallow before holding it out to the other turian.

"Hmmm. There may not be much left in your bottle upstairs, either." Garrus fluttered his mandibles. "Shepard and his wife," he said, tilting his head toward the other turian, "broke into it after they killed the rum."

"Damn." Jack sneered, but then just as suddenly it shifted into a pleased grin and she snickered. "Dr. Chakwas is going to be pissed."

Garrus chuckled and nodded, he couldn't argue. Dr. Chakwas had been on Dawn for a while about her alcohol and caffeine intake. She'd definitely gone over even the idea of a limit up in her cabin.

The older Garrus took the bottle from her and knocked back a drink before stopping to look over his shoulder toward the hall. "You're supposed to be asleep."

Garrus turned to look in the same direction, hearing the door to the observation slide shut. He hummed and glanced at Jack.

"I had to piss," Jane V.—as Dawn dubbed the other woman—appeared around the corner, her words cutting off before a look of pleasant surprise lifted her eyebrows. "Jack!" She grinned and shrugged, chuckling. "Well, a Jack."

"Not Shepard!" Jack smirked, adding just as much enthusiasm to the statement, and Garrus shook his head. "You drank my vodka."

"Damn." Jane V. walked over to the table and dropped down heavily on the bench beside her husband. "And I didn't bring the rest down here."

"Fucking bitch." Jack's smile widened, her tone light and playful. "I already don't like you."

The grin on Jack's face and the older turian's earlier words were the only thing keeping Garrus from groaning in dismay. The other Garrus was right, no point in trying to protect them from the antics of a woman they'd both already known for years.

"And now I can't sleep tonight." Jane V., to her credit, picked right up on what must've been a familiar game with her Jack, splaying her fingers out over her chest and pouting her lip. "Oh, Garrus, hold me." She leaned against her husband.

Garrus chuckled, letting his gaze drift over the couple before settling on the older turian's metal arm. He supposed it'd no longer be appropriate to ask about the prosthesis, he didn't want to create waves with the other turian by distressing his wife. He cleared his throat a little, turning his attention back to Jack. Looping his finger through the strap around her chest, he tugged, urging her to come a little closer. "If it makes a difference, Shepard made sure they didn't disgrace your alcohol by pouring it into glasses."

"Because she knows I'd kick her ass." Jack turned, sliding closer between his knees and leaned her back against his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, and breathed in the pervasive scent of a storm rolling in; she always smelled of rain and a fresh lightning strike to him. He figured her constant use of her exceptionally strong biotics created the smell, but it didn't really matter, it was her scent and exactly what he needed.

Jane V. gave Jack a solemn nod, as if showing complete respect for the vodka before she looked down at her husband's handiwork. Slipping the slender electric probe from his hand, she tossed it on the table. "No more 'calibrating.'" She grinned and motioned for the bottle. "Drink!"

"I liked you better when you were asleep." He smiled as he glanced at her, giving Garrus a firsthand view of what he must look like to everyone else when he looked at Dawn or Jack. Everything about the gruff, older turian's body language proclaimed Jane V. as his mate, and one whom he dearly loved.

His wife snorted. "I like you better when you're in bed, but we can't all have what we want."

Jack tilted her head back to meet Garrus' gaze and rolled her eyes, mouthing the word 'gross'. He laughed, and ran his hand over the top of her buzzed head before pressing his mouth to her hairline. She reached up and gave his mandible a light, playful jerk before turning her attention back to the other couple.

"So, if you're not going to drink it, give it back." Jack pushed herself back up, slipping away from him as she cocked her eyebrow at the other two.

The older Garrus took a drink before passing the bottle back to Jack. Garrus assumed he was all too happy to hand it over to the biotic as opposed to his already intoxicated wife. Jack grinned, taking a heavy swallow before offering it to him.

"So, did you tell them about your time you let a gunship blow its load on your face?" Jane V. smiled, patting her husband's scarred face.

Jack snorted, her gaze shifting between the other two, her expression giving way to her awe at their existence even if she'd never admit to anything of the sort.

The other turian flicked his mandible against his wife's palm. "Not quite so eloquently."

Garrus hummed. "I've heard the story. Well, Shepard's version of the story. Notice the lack of gunship 'load blowing' scars on my face."

"No shit? She told them?" Jack arched her eyebrows.

Garrus nodded, a quick jerk of his head. "I asked her to, I thought it might help. Hmm, I might've been wrong. I think it made things worse."

"Shut up," Jack said, elbowing him in his abdomen, making a thumping sound against his armor. "Shepard's fine. You know she's got this." Turning her attention back to Jane V., she tilted her head back, lifting her chin. "I want to hear the story."

He rumbled, grabbing her arm before she could pull it away again and looped his hand with hers. He knew she wouldn't leave it there for long, she never did. It didn't bother him; much. Even though she'd developed feelings for him, and told him as much, expressing them openly always seemed like a huge struggle for her. Especially around other people. He just felt grateful for her presence, and her show of support; for both him and Dawn.

Jane V. chuckled, glancing between the two turians. "That's no fun, Garr—other Garrus. You, Garrus." She pointed at him before looking at Jack, pulling a soft chuckle from him. "You know the whole 'vigilante on Omega' story, right? Or did he not do that?" She waved her hand at him.

"Yeah, he rocked Omega. And?" Jack quirked an eyebrow.

Garrus chuckled, shaking his head at the childish behavior from both women. He glanced at the older version of himself, trying to get a feel for where he stood in their current situation, having their quiet, private conversation hijacked by the two women. It relaxed him a little to see the older turian seemed comfortable, even happy with his wife's change of pace. It definitely made Garrus happy to see the tension in Dawn's cabin didn't completely damage the awkward yet peaceful relationship they'd established with the other couple.

"This one!" Jane V. glared over at her husband. "Was an idiot and pissed off all the merc bands. Enough that they all wanted him dead bad enough to team up. Fucking idiot."

Garrus hummed softly, squirming a little in his seat as he fought back the inexplicable urge to defend the actions of his older self. After all, if not for Dawn's warning, he'd likely have found himself in exactly the same spot and paid exactly the same price.

Seemingly unbothered by her ire, the other turian shrugged. "Managed to take out the Eclipse and Blood Pack until the Blue Suns bastard had a gunship."

"Fuck yeah!" Jack grinned. "That's badass." She freed her hand from Garrus' and took the bottle from his other hand, knocking back a drink before passing it to the other turian. "I'll drink to that shit."

He accepted the bottle from Jack and took a drink before handing it right back. His wife cocked an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything. Garrus figured she'd realized the same thing he did a moment before—her husband didn't intend to make it easy for her to drink anything else for the night.

"Any more stories you want to tell them?" The older turian chuckled, his attention on his wife.

"Tell me about the other me. Shit's trippy," Jack spoke up before Jane V. could answer. "I love hearing that shit from Shepard."

"Huh," Jane V. said, scratching at her jaw. "I don't know how far to tell you without 'messing up the timeline' or some such shit …."

"You two initially didn't get along. At. All." The older turian offered, glancing at Garrus.

"Us two?" Jack asked, motioning between herself and the older turian, before doing the same to his wife. "Or us two? Because really, I can see it both ways."

"I don't think the timeline is going to be much of an issue in our case … hell, I think it might be half the point for Shepard." Garrus flicked his mandible.

Jane V. snorted. "Garrus was such a recluse he wasn't even around enough to make enemies." She grinned and shook her head. "Nah, you—well, that you—and I were in a pissing match of who had the biggest biotic dick or something. Can't quite remember."

"Shit, sounds like an easy enough argument to solve." Jack grinned. "I do."

"It all seemed to work itself out after I touched her boob." Jane V. laughed.

"Yeah, fuck that shit." Jack raised an eyebrow. "You touch my tits and I'm taking your hand off."

"Jack." Garrus rumbled in warning at her.

"Fuck you, too. Shut up." She waved him off. "She knows me well enough to know when I'm bullshitting her." Jack glanced back at Jane V. "Right?" She lifted an eyebrow, but Garrus could see the hint of challenge behind it.

He rumbled at her again and she sucked on her teeth, rolling her eyes at him.

She laid a hand on his knee. "Relax, shit."

Leaning over he nipped at her bare shoulder and she smiled, shrugging him off before wrapping a hand around his head to pull him to her and kissed him. She grinned and gave his cheek a light slap, barely hard enough for him to feel through his plates. He smirked, fighting to keep his mind from wandering to the things he wanted to do to her. For Jack, a light slap equated to foreplay, and he saw the spark in her eye telling him she knew exactly the effect she had on him.

Jane V. shrugged and shifted to lean her back on her husband's side, pulling a leg up on the bench. "I don't see any reason for dominance plays. I'm not your commander, so I couldn't give two shits whether you follow orders." She chuckled. "So, I'll only touch your tits if you ask nicely," she finished with a smirk.

Jack snorted. "Now you sound like Shepard." She leaned forward against the table. "So … you touch people's tits to get them to follow orders?" Arching her eyebrows, she glanced back and forth between the married couple. "It's got to be against regs, right? Even Cerberus regs."

Both Jane V. and her husband shifted to look at each other before laughing. Garrus chuckled and shook his head, but Jack continued to stare at the other couple with a brow raised waiting for an answer.

Jane V. stifled her laughter. "Fuck regs. Regs say things like 'don't have sex in the conference room', but we did that, too."

Jack grinned, turning her gaze to Garrus, and he flicked his mandibles. He made a mental note to remember to thank his older counterpart later. No way was Jack going to leave it alone until they 'fucked' in the comm room now.

"So, just you two, then?" She asked, nodding toward the two of them.

Garrus hummed, taking the bottle from her and taking a heavy swallow before passing it to the other Garrus. "Not our business, Jack."

Jane V. sobered up and nodded, laying an arm on the table as her husband took a drink. "Trust was, and still is hard for me, so yeah. It's just him." She glanced up at the older turian. "And you?"

He shrugged, as if the question didn't really warrant an answer, but he gave her one anyway. "I don't really have a reason. Just you."

"Lame." Jack propped an elbow up on the table and rested her chin on her palm, apparently bored with the conversation.

"So … hmmm." Garrus shifted a little, buying himself time to think of something a little less awkward to talk about. "Your Jack work at Grissom Academy?"

The older Garrus took another drink before handing Jack the bottle. "Yes. And she and I have a running competition on whose arm is better." He moved his prosthetic arm, rotating it until it caught Jack's attention.

She frowned. "No. You're fucking with me, right?"

Jane V. shook her head. "You saved your kids. That's all that mattered to you."

Jack narrowed her eyes, clearly not buying the sentimental aspects of the story. "Fuck's sake. Does it fuck with my biotics?"

"No," Jane V. said with a smirk. "You're still kicking ass and taking names, Jack."

"Damn right." Jack turned her gaze back to the older turian's prosthetic arm and nodded at him. "How the hell did that happen, anyway?"

"I tried to play catch with a Mako," The older Garrus said as if it were the most mundane thing to ever happen, closing the panel on the metal forearm.

His wife snorted.

"I take it Jane V. was driving?" Garrus asked, flicking his mandible.

 _Ah, the good old days with Shepard behind the wheel of the Mako. Thank the Spirits for Cerberus shuttles._

"Hey now." Jane V. waggled a finger at him, chuckling. "For once, it wasn't me."

"Hmmm." Garrus fluttered his mandibles and shrugged. "I figured it must be one of those things not even an alternate universe can change about a Shepard."

"Lucky us." The grizzled turian's voice remained flat, lacking even a hint of humor.

By his side, his wife pouted, elbowing him in the ribs. "Ass," she muttered, just barely loud enough to be heard.

He leaned over, butting the plates of his forehead against hers. She smiled, cupping his cheek in her hand.

Jack let out a loud breath. "Fuck. I'm tired." She pulled herself up from the table, grabbing the bottle for one last swig before setting it down. Leaning over, she took Garrus' hand and tugged, tilting her head back toward the elevator. "Walk me down?"

He smiled and nodded, standing up and glancing back at the couple, breaking their affectionate moment. "If you two need anything, have EDI let me know. Shepard should be out for at least a couple of hours, but with as late as it is, she'll probably sleep through the night."

"Actually," Jane V. said as she stood, picking up her husband's Widow and leaning it on her shoulder with a smirk, "I think it's time we make sure Tali and Kal'Reegar will need to decontaminate that bed when they come back." She nudged her husband—already in the process of standing himself—and he grabbed his toolkit.

Garrus chuffed. "I'm sure they would've anyway, but thanks for _that_ imagery." He turned when Jack started to pull on him and took a few steps. "It's not like it's at all awkward considering," he said, glancing back over his shoulder to nod his head at the older version of himself, "we probably share identical DNA." He chuckled. "Have a good night."

Jack turned, walking backwards long enough to lift a hand in a half wave.


	7. Morning Tension

**Morning Tension**

 **Parable**

Jane awoke with a groan into the pillow, her face buried and engulfed by its utilitarian scent. That spoke volumes of where she had found herself before she even had to raise her head, the scent not one present in her bed back on Virmire. No, this smelled an awful lot like the Normandy and, while not strange in and of itself, the lack of bubbling sounds and overly soft, concave bedding - _for turian comfort!_ \- was very strange indeed. Lifting her head to figure out where the hell she had just woken up, she growled with clenched teeth at the stab of pain shooting from temple to temple like a hot spear of bad decisions.

 _On right, I remember now…_ _Too much rum, and not enough fun._

A soft - and entirely too comfortable sounding to have been hungover - rumble beside her announced her bed partner, and she sighed at the sure fire 'I told you so' that waited on the tip of his tongue. The drowsy sound stilled for a moment, as the rapid fire of confused thoughts over their surroundings most likely ran through his head as it had hers, but soon he rolled, draped an arm over her, and pulled her back against his vibrating chest.

"Easy, easy," she whispered with a hiss as he manhandled her across the small - when compared to the one in the Captain's Cabin - bed. "I hate your morning cheer."

He hummed and chuckled against her disheveled hair, mandibles tickling her scalp. "You're just saying that because you're regretting your decisions last night." Dodging her half-assed swat over her hip at him, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it with his own. "Now, now. There's no need to be upset. I'm sure a cup of that chocolate coffee you love so much will help with this hangover." He shifted up and leaned over her, an annoying and teasing smile on his face.

She glared up at him. "You know I don't drink coffee anymore since the pregnancy with your," she said, emphasizing the word by rolling over and giving his chest plates a hard jab with her finger, "damn kids. And I doubt tea is going to do shit against this hangover."

Garrus, damn him, chuckled and looked up to the stars outside of the Observation windows. "Oh, you're right." He smirked back down at her. "Silly me. I must have forgotten." He hummed with a frustrating amount of levity to his vocals as he smoothed some of her hair down with the back of his hand. "I guess drinking so much last night was a bad idea, considering."

"I hate you."

"And I love you," he responded with a grin and light kiss to her lips. "Now, come on. Up and at 'em, I think the saying is." He gave her forehead a gentle nip with his mouth plates before rolling and getting to his feet. His amusement broke for a moment, however, when he groaned and rubbed his back. "I forgot how sleeping in a flat bed feels."

Jane snorted and slowly forced herself into a sitting position, the spinning ache in her skull not able to steal her sweet vengeance. "That's what you get for making fun. The iron fist of karma right in that bad back of yours." Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she hefted herself up to her feet. Hands on her hips and eyes out at the stars, she chuckled. "Fuck. Are we getting old?"

Her mate hummed as she heard shuffling over her shoulder. "Not sure about me, but you-"

Head snapping over her shoulder, she grabbed the pillow she had been so inelegantly drooling into moments before, and tossed it at him as he bent over to grab clothes off the floor. She smirked at his huff and swat at the pillow. "Alright, you shit. If we want to be specific, you're technically older than me. You have two years on me."

She has finally been able to make jokes about her own death, and it didn't cause him to stop and stare with that cold look in his eyes, at least not every time. Now, more recent deaths were a different matter, but perhaps the only good of her hangover existed in the chance to focus on the pain of too much alcohol and not her failure at being the leader she was believed to be. With the pounding in her skull taking front seat, the whispering dead could fuck off. For however long her brain felt like it was melting out of her ears, she was free.

"That doesn't count," he protested with a chuckle and tossed the pillow over at her with little force, surprising her when he threw her underwear at her once her hands were full with the pillow. "I'm sure we can find you something to help with the hangover."

His words were weighted, she knew, because he, above all, wasn't blind. He could, no doubt, see her relieved mood thanks to her condition and, knowing him, didn't want the moment to end anytime soon. She could already tell how much he wished she'd denied Dawn Shepard any help, but like hell was she just going to turn her back on a woman willing to find a way to send her and her mate back to their own reality.

 _If wishes were fishes, Garrus, you'd have food for years._

She hummed as she bounced on her foot to pull up her panties, swaying a bit when she switched to the other one. He caught her, having moved to her side of the bed to hand her the rest of her clothes and grab his own shirt, and she nodded a quick thanks. He might not agree with her, but he wouldn't say a damn thing to her about her decisions, and she showed her appreciation for it in that very same gesture.

She was a grown ass woman and he knew it. No further discussion.

"You good?" he asked, motioning to her clothes in explanation.

She rolled her eyes with a snort. "I think I can dress myself, thank you very much. What does Cassia say, 'Leave me alone and lemme do it'?"

He laughed and nodded, heading closer to the door to grab his boots. "Well, alright, then. She got her temper from you, so I'm not going to question." Slipping his feet into his boots, he crouched down to snap them closed. "I'm thinking of heading down to the cargo bay, maybe find a sparring partner. Get the blood flowing."

"Ouch," she retorted in mock hurt, holding a hand to her chest when he glanced her way. "I'm offended. I could have sworn I 'got the blood flowing' in all _sorts_ of places last night." She smirked at his laugh as he came to her and pressed a kiss on her cheek. "What? No lips?"

"Oh, what? Done bragging about your exploits?" He smiled and pressed his mouth to hers, nipping lightly in his approximation of a kiss. "Our omnitools still work, so ping me if you need anything."

She nodded and waved him off, chuckling at the thought of him finding a sparring partner on this Normandy. It'd be like cheating, she figured, as he already knew everyone's close quarters fighting as well as sparring styles from their own friends and, unless Dawn completely altered how people move on the mat, Garrus had an unfair advantage. Plus, he had those years on them, practice with fist fighting mercs during their 'new endeavours' after the war, and he sported a fucking artificial arm.

 _Not only is he an expert hand-to-hand specialist, but has to cheat with the moves? That cyborg bastard has learned well._

She chuckled to herself and shook her head as she pulled on her borrowed pants. Grabbing her tank - _ah, the good ol' Cerberus issued casuals_ \- Jane yanked it down over her head and arms before grabbing the jacket Dawn had requisitions loan her. At least, she really hoped they were just loaned because it'd be awfully strange to bring back souvenirs in the form of Cerberus uniforms.

 _I'd much prefer something better, like a fish or model ship._

Shuffling into the flat shoes given to her, Jane stepped out into the crew deck. She yawned as she rounded the corner and caught Dawn sitting at the table, pouring over a datapad as Thane sat beside her with a steaming mug in hand. Some batarian Jane didn't recognize worked with something in the kitchenette, alongside Gardner as he cooked. Odd to see, but, then again, Jane had batarians on some her crews and Dawn had already proven she'd changed things up with James being aboard and a sort of alliance between quarians and geth starting up.

She shrugged to herself and climbed over the bench to sit across from Dawn, yawning as silently as she could, but it didn't quite muffle it completely. She still managed to get Dawn's attention, probably had it since stepping around the hall's barrier, but she apologized anyways. "Sorry about that. Still waking up. Not a morning person."

Dawn smiled, glancing up from her datapad and quirked an eyebrow. "Who is? Coffee? Breakfast?"

"No coffee… Can't stand the taste anymore. But breakfast? Speaking my language." Jane motioned towards the two in the kitchenette, the batarian making what seemed to be like steaming drinks in mugs now that she could see better from her seated position. "But I'll wait until there's room to make something to drink, though. Too many cooks, you know?" The other Shepard nodded, her smile fading a little and Jane considered the double meaning that could have held, cursing herself a bit for reminding Dawn of the fucked up situation in her own head.

 _As if she needed that._

Dawn dropped her gaze back to her datapad as she spoke. "So… last night… we good?"

Jane nodded, picking at a thread on the jacket sleeve. "Yeah, we're good. You good?"

 _This is awkward small talk. How else do you ask, 'hey, you done freaking the fuck out? 'Cause we don't need two crazy women on this ship.'_

The woman snorted and glanced up, her eyebrow twitching. "I'll manage. Always do." She glanced towards the batarian, making Jane have the urge to follow her eyes and barely caught Dawn's returned gaze when she looked back to the woman. "Where's your other half?"

"Probably causing trouble down in the cargo bay. He has a neat little idea that it's fair game to spar with people on your ship even though he's got the unfair advantage." She snorted as the batarian returned with two steaming hot cups.

Dawn chuckled and smirked, giving a slight nod. "Good, maybe he'll push them to up their game."

Jane chuckled, shrugging. "Would teach them not to get into a fight with a half-robot. Or at least dodge any punches from that side."

When the batarian offered her a mug, Dawn's face lit up and she grinned, giving Jane a raised finger to hold that thought. When she accepted the mug, the woman took a deep breath of the steam rising from the liquid within that smelled like - to Jane across the table - strong coffee. Looking back up to her crew member, Dawn said, "Marriage proposal still stands, Grundan Krul."

Thane chuckled lightly and Jane's brow raised at that little tidbit, remembering the name etched into Garrus' visor. She watched Dawn take a sip of her coffee as Grundan Krul drank from his own cup, his lips twitching just slightly with a smile. He patted her shoulder when he lowered his mug and said, "I know."

"Wow. Better be ready if Garrus sees you." Jane looked to the man, tilting her head. "I wonder if you still look the same to him or if your Garrus, knowing how things would go down, affected shit for you guys on Omega. Well, besides the whole rocket to the face bit."

"Archangel already told him, I believe," Grundan Krul said with a shallow shrug/

She nodded at the man's answer as Dawn smirked, explaining, "Garrus changed everything on Omega."

"I guess so." Jane snorted at the idea of knowing everything one is supposed to do and how to do it for the timeline to be the same, or some such shit. "Okay," she said more to herself than the others, stopping her own thoughts. "It's too early and I'm too hungover to think about this." Chuckling, she shook her head. "Changing subjects." Leaning back, she motioned to the mug in Dawn's hand. "Marriage, huh? Girl like you?" She smirked teasingly. "Never thought about the ol' ball and chain myself. Didn't have the interest until Garrus."

Dawn glanced at the empty seat on the bench beside her before looking up to Grundan Krul. Catching his eyes, she nodded down at the spot and he dipped his head, taking a seat at her side. Looking back to Jane, Dawn tilted her head towards the man. "You haven't tasted his coffee."

"Too bad he's not interested in humans," a very familiar, disembodied voice said, and Jane smiled at the thought of Kasumi there, making just as much trouble as her own.

"Nice to meet you, Kasumi." Jane looked towards where the voice seemed to come from. "Good to know you still know all the juiciest gossip."

Kasumi's cloak dropped and she stood at the end of the table, grinning at Jane. "Of course! You should try the oatmeal, it's my grandmother's recipe!"

"What she means is try the oatmeal, decide you don't like it, and then let her eat the rest," Dawn explained as Jane looked back to watch her lift the mug to her lips, her violet eyes watching Jane.

Jane hummed and shifted her attention from Dawn to Kasumi. "Never had it before. Well, any oatmeal."

"Don't listen to Shep. It's the best." Kasumi moved over to sit next to Jane, turning just enough to watch her under the hood the thief always wore. "How can you never have had oatmeal before?"

"Wasn't really something on military menus, I don't think. And apparently our…" She glanced towards the kitchen. "Our _cook_ didn't really consider making it." Shrugging, she leaned an arm on the table. "And Garrus and the twins have a strange aversion to mushy food."

"Twins?" Kasumi perked up at the word even before Jane had finished her sentence. "Are there pictures?"

Jane heard Dawn chuckle and chuckled herself, nodding and opening her tool to the pictures of Damocles and Cassia on the beach for their birthday. "That's Damocles and that's Cassia," she said, pointing to each in turn as she angled her arm to show Kasumi. She looked up to the others. "You can see too if you ask nicely," she teased with a smirk. "Though I might not. You're a bad influence, Shepard. Getting their mother drunk."

"Who am I to tell a grown woman what she can and cannot drink?" Dawn smiled, and Jane chuckled, tilting her head in agreement to that. "May I pretty, pretty, please see them?"

Thane smiled as he set his mug down after a drink, and Grundan Krul merely sipped his coffee, but it was good enough as Jane flicked the interface on her tool to switch the image around. The image changed from the twins blowing out their candles to one of Damocles trying to steal his sister's ice cream after eating all of his own. "Those are my two little monsters."

Dawn's eyebrows twitched before her expression quickly leveled itself out. "They are biologically both of yours? How?"

Thane seemed to have caught the woman's slight change in emotion before she got a handle over it, but he didn't speak or move. His expression was just as unreadable as any other Jane had seen on any Thane's face, but the fact that he hadn't begun to repeat the seemingly over-cautious actions of last night made her feel like Dawn wasn't about to lose control again.

"I bet Mordin had something to do with it," Kasumi said, pulling Jane's attention away from the other two.

Chuckling, she shook her head. "Actually, he probably wished he had been responsible for at least some of it. It was some weird tech Miranda put in me." She waved her hand in the air. "I have no idea how the science works, nor did I really catch most of the huge words he was rattling off." Glancing over to Dawn, she saw the woman's wide eyes, like a deer caught in headlights on the vids. When Thane moved to take her hand and caressed it with his thumb, Jane stopped, as things started to look all too similar to last night. "Uh, should I really be going on about this?"

"That depends." Dawn paused and tilted her head to the side in that move that looked an awful lot like a woman listening to something everyone else couldn't hear. "Was this something Miranda added at your request, or do I need to invest in pregnancy tests?"

"Uh." Not sure what Dawn really wanted to hear, Jane scratched her jaw. "The latter? I mean, I didn't really wants kids in the middle of a war, as crazy as I am."

Dawn stood up. "Excuse me, for a moment." She stepped away from the table and headed straight for Miranda's office, Jane watching her go.

"Damn, now I feel bad for Miranda. I actually like Miranda now in our universe."

When Jane looked back to the others after watching Dawn round the corner, she saw Thane return his own gaze to her from watching Dawn go. He didn't seem concerned, so Jane figured that was good enough not to worry too much about whatever is going on behind those doors.

"They're beautiful children," he said and Jane smiled, dipping her head in thanks.

"She's alright with Miranda. Jane - her Jane - not so much." Kasumi shrugged beside Jane. "We'll see who wins."

Grundan Krul shook his head lightly. "She'll be alright."

Jane chuckled and smirked at an over-exaggerated thought of the two having it out when, in reality, probably just a civil conversation was going on behind the closed doors. "Miranda, or Shepard?"

"Shepard." He sipped his coffee. "She's not upset with Miranda." He lifted a shoulder before adding, "Yet."

She hummed and glanced towards the door to Miranda's cabin once more. "It's possible it didn't even happen. I mean, you guys have already changed quite a bit, and Shepard started changing things even before, well, you know." She waved her hand so she didn't have to say the dreaded 'd' word. "Your Miranda might not have turned her into a test subject like she did me."

Thane coughed into his fist as Grundan Krul lifted his shoulder again, saying, "Maybe."

Kasumi turned to him. "How can you tell?"

"She said 'excuse me.'"

"Newcomer is lost," Jane said with a raised hand. "What the hell does that mean?"

Thane chuckled. "She tends to forget her manners when she's truly upset."

"True. She also didn't check her thermal clip." Kasumi bobbed her head and snickered at what must have been a running joke based on experience with Dawn's anger aboard the ship.

Jane opened her mouth in understanding of something that should have been obvious. "Oh. Well, she's got better manners than me, then. Apparently, I look pissed even when I'm not."

Thane raised a brow. "I disagree, you don't look upset to me now."

"Yeah. Because you're not seeing me around this time in my timeline." She chuckled and looked around the ship. "Wasn't a good tour for everyone, let me tell you."

"Indeed," Thane agreed with thoughts obviously on their own tour into hell as he sipped his tea.

"Ahh, resting bitch-face," Kasumi spoke, breaking the tension in the air brought on by thinking about the upcoming mission and whatever other fucked up shit this crew is dealing with. "Why do you think I keep my hood up?"

Jane looked over towards Kasumi and laughed, nodding. "Touché." Chuckling, she lift her own jacket's hood over her head. "How do I look?"

"Perfect," Kasumi said with a grin.

"I just walked into a strange conversation." Garrus, jacket open and hanging loosely over his shoulders, walked around the barrier and passed behind Thane and Grundan Krul, headed for the kitchenette fridge. "Do I want to know why you're wearing a hood like Kasumi?" He asked with a glance to Jane over his shoulder.

"Probably not." She grinned and patted the bench beside her loud enough for him to hear. "Come sit, handsome. And tell us why you're here so early."

The doors to Miranda's office opened, and Jane watched her husband jerk his chin in silent greeting, Dawn returning the gesture. Looking from the woman to her crew, Jane watched Kasumi's eyes barely visible in the shadows of her hood follow her mate as he grabbed a bottle of cold water. Grundan Krul glanced over his shoulder, cup in hand and eyes looking a bit wider than usual as he blinked. He quickly turned back and sipped his coffee, maybe to recollect after whatever the hell that shock just was.

Jane heard her husband rumble in agreement before he turned. Suddenly, he stopped mid-step to return to the table, eyes widening at the sight of Grundan Krul and mandibles falling lax at his jaw. Dawn, seeing the shock on his face, moved between him and Gardner, taking his elbow and seeming to say something that helped Garrus gather himself as they moved towards the table.

 _Well, that solves whether or not he was completely prepared to see the man._

Garrus shook his head at whatever was said and they split to take their places on either side of the table, she between Thane and Grundan Krul and he beside Jane - and, ironically, right across from the man unintentionally causing the awkward tension that settled over the group just then. Looking to her husband, Jane lifted a brow in question, and he rumbled, nodding and laying a hand on her leg to reassure her that he was alright with this. It seemed like they were both dealing with their own ghosts during the days with Dawn and her crew.

Across the table, Grundan Krul also gave Dawn a look laden with questions, but she simply smiled and picked up her coffee. "So, what'd I miss?"

Jane reached under the table to take Garrus' hand and moved their linked hands up onto the table. "We were talking about how I look so much better with the hood up. And taking bets on what was going on behind those doors." She feigned a frown. "I think I lost."

"Hmmm. Not quite the same level of mystery as Kasumi, but it works." Dawn grinned, holding her mug close to her lips. "So, how much did you lose?"

"My legs," Jane said with a dejected sigh, looking to her husband as Dawn snorted. "Looks like you're carrying me."

"I can do that once they're gone. Those things are heavy." That got him a light swat on his chest, but he then grabbed her hand and put it back on the table with his own before she could retaliate further. "I know, I know. Don't insult a woman's weight. Even if she's half metal."

Dawn picked up the datapad she had previously set aside, when Jane sat, and looked it a few seconds before handing it over to Grundan Krul. Once in his hand, he gave it a passing glance before setting it down in front of him without actually taking the time he'd have needed to read it. Not unless he could read like an AI, which - while impressive - Jane doubted.

Curious, but not enough to actually care what just happened between those two, Jane looked over to her mate. Garrus watched the exchange - but mostly the version of his former teammate - but he turned away and down to her, flicking a mandible. She could read that well enough. He was alright, but just thrown by seeing the dead. Whatever happened back on Omega that he still hadn't told her, it wasn't bad enough to give him a mental breakdown like it probably would herself.

"So," Kasumi said, drawing Jane's attention before smiling and tilting her head. "How'd you get the metal legs?"

Jane snorted and looked down to her own legs, patting her thigh with her free hand. "These things? Well, believe it or not, a Citadel is pretty fucking heavy when laying on your legs." Beside her, her husband trilled faintly and leaned down to press his head to the top of her own, obviously still affected by the last hellish hours of the war and what they went through both together and forcibly apart.

* * *

 **TLADOCS**

Pain, hot and sharp, lanced through her as she sucked in a wet, ragged breath. Coughing, blood burbled in her lungs. Every inch of her body burned as if on fire. Twisted chunks of metal and thick, broken slabs of concrete kept her pinned, cutting through her body and crushing her. Electricity arched over her skin as her implants fizzled out, sending bolts of lightning through her head.

Dawn sucked in a slow, deep breath, her fingers trembling. Thane's hand slipped into hers, an anchor to the present moment, helping to chase the phantom pains and images away. She almost heard his voice—though he didn't speak a word—whispering in her ear, telling her to acknowledge and let go. She squeezed his fingers, his thumb brushing over her knuckles as she let the breath out just as slow.

Jane V. and her husband watched her, their eyes scrutinizing, as if they expected her to fall apart at any second, so she forced a smile on her face. She took in another slow breath, only distantly aware of Grundan Krul picking up her coffee cup and stepping away from the table. Jane stirred, as restless and agitated by the unwelcome memories as Dawn herself. She blinked, clearing the residual death, destruction, and gore of the ruined Citadel from her mind. Grundan Krul returned, setting a fresh cup of coffee down in front of her, and she glanced at him. He dipped his head and sat back down next to her, picking up his own cup.

Letting out a long breath, Jane V. leaned against her husband, and he rested his chin on her head. "I don't want to make things more difficult to tamp down those … others. Maybe we shouldn't talk about that?"

Dawn snorted, just a soft huff of breath through her nose. "It's really not as bad as it seems. Last night was unusual; my resistance lowered from the alcohol and heightened emotions." She picked up the steaming cup of coffee and glanced down at her own reflection in the dark liquid, shaking off the uneasy feeling her face didn't look the way it should. "You really don't need to be afraid of me."

"I'm not afraid _of_ you, I'm afraid _for_ you," Jane V. said, drawing Dawn's attention back to her as she pursed her lips. "No, afraid isn't right. I know how fucked up it is to have your own head betraying you. Not quite the same between us, but you get what I mean."

"Yeah." Dawn sighed. "This wasn't even the same thing as last night." She cleared her throat and took a sip from the cup, glancing at Grundan Krul to offer him a smile in thanks. "I have vivid memories of the Crucible—of everything. Sometimes they hit like full on flashbacks, not something Jane shows me, I'm just … there. Anything and anyone can trigger them." She shrugged. "So, yeah, talk about whatever you want, it isn't going to matter either way."

" _You going to tell them why?"_ Jane asked. " _You're telling them everything else."_

"No. It's not relevant," Dawn thought, lifting her mug to her lips. "I didn't plan on telling them anything about you being able to take over, but you opened the door on that one yourself."

" _She doesn't make any sense._ They _don't make any sense. They shouldn't exist."_ Jane's voice sounded strained, as if on the verge of another shift, swinging back towards another bout of insane rambling.

Dawn sincerely hoped it wasn't the case. They'd been making so much progress, the last thing she needed just then was to listen to Jane go on and on about what she felt during the Lazarus Project, or start reciting creepy versus from Edgar Allen Poe. Not to mention, the potential for her to truly try to seize control increased when her mindset turned dark.

"Jane, we don't know what caused any of this, so we don't know why she wasn't affected. For all we really know, there are far more like her than there are like us," Dawn thought. "We're going to keep working together to figure this thing out and end the cycle, yeah?"

" _Yeah."_ Jane retreated, her thoughts less present in Dawn's mind as she seemed to resign herself to observing events instead of participating in them.

Jane V.'s gaze searched Dawn, apparently finding whatever she sought, she nodded her head. Turning her attention towards the kitchen, she wiggled in her seat until her husband lifted his head, and she stood. "I think I'll see if I can make myself something to drink. Anything I should stay away from?"

Dawn shrugged. "Levo and dextro is all marked, so help yourself."

The other woman made her way to the kitchen, waving a hand over her shoulder in acknowledgement. Dawn sipped her coffee, soaking in the feel of Thane's hand still in her grip, and turned her attention to the older, grizzled turian sitting across the table. Twice, in the span of seconds, she caught him cast furtive glances at Grundan Krul, only to look away when the batarian's gaze drifted anywhere near him.

Dawn cleared her throat, and the turian's gaze shifted to her. She offered him a smile, her gut telling her even though his wife might be accepting of the events from the night before, he might not be so willing to set them aside. "If there's something you need to say about last night, might as well get it out."

He lifted a shoulder, a rumbling coming from him before he said, "Nothing to be said. Your crew has everything under control as well as can be done."

She grunted, a noncommittal sound and nodded. "You sure?"

"If you're asking whether or not I'll let my guard down? No." He took a drink from his water, his gaze drifting to Grundan Krul over the end of the bottle.

Dawn snorted before it shifted to an all out chuckle and shook her head. If ever she found a universe where a Garrus willingly let his guard down in strange territory, she'd believe she'd truly died and it was all some sort of fever dream in the last moments of consciousness. He watched her, lowering his bottle back to the table, his unscarred mandible twitching, until she composed herself.

"Is it you I don't trust? No. It's that Shepard in your head," he waved at her with his free hand.

" _Me? What the hell reason does he have to not trust me? So what if I pushed a little last night? For all he knows, I just wanted to say hello. Ask him. I want to know why the hell he doesn't trust me."_

Dawn's eyebrow twitched, Jane had a point. She hummed and sipped her coffee, keeping her gaze on Garrus V. while she weighed out the potential risks of giving Jane a voice with those two. "She wants to know why you don't trust her in specific."

He raised a brow plate, slowly turning the bottle in his hand. "You let her speak through you." It wasn't a question, just a stated observation before he rumbled and spoke in whatever turian dialect he and Garrus used the night before; her translator unable to make sense of it, but the exasperated tone rang through clear enough.

Thane coughed gently into his fist, and Dawn glanced at him, catching the tight lines of his lips pressing together in disapproval before his face stilled once more. He didn't offer her a translation, as he did the last time, which only made Dawn more curious about what Garrus V. said. Maybe she'd ask Thane later. She turned her attention back to the older turian in time to catch sight of his wife returning, carrying with her a bowl in one hand and a mug in the other. His head inclined toward his wife, even as his gaze swept back over Grundan Krul.

"Sometimes," Dawn said as Jane V. settled back into her seat. "Dr. Chakwas encourages me to, but sometimes … sometimes what she's saying isn't worth repeating. She's got a point though." She arched an eyebrow at him. "You gonna give her an answer?"

Jane V. glanced between her husband and Dawn before shifting her gaze over to Thane, lifting the mug to her lips. "It cool if I took some of your tea? I figured it's yours with the drell written on it."

"Of course."

Dawn kept her gaze on the turian, her eyes narrowed as she watched him, waiting for his response.

His mandibles pulled in tight against his jaw, his steely gaze pinning hers in place. "Alright _other Shepard_." Leaning forward, he rested his forearms on the table.

Out of her peripherals, Dawn saw Jane V. freeze, her spoon midway to her mouth, gaze darting between her husband and Dawn. She felt Thane grow even more still than usual next to her, but he didn't say anything.

"First? You took command over a body that doesn't belong to you without the true owner's permission last night. And don't try to deny it, because you seem to have a track record with it according to her crew." His mandibles shifted, just one sharp jerk. "Second? You have a habit of shooting her crew."

" _Garrus told him."_ The sudden, sorrowful sigh from Jane nearly made Dawn wince; nealy. "It was an accident! _How many fucking times do I have to say it was an accident and I'm sorry? I mean … I'm pretty sure it was an accident. What the hell does he even care, anyway? I didn't shoot_ him _?"_ She growled, her frustration hitting against Dawn's consciousness in waves. " _Tell him one time does not make a habit."_

Dawn smirked and held a finger up, her head tilted a little to the side as she thought, "Seriously? That's it? That's your defense, all you want to say?"

" _What would_ you _say?"_ Jane asked, her words little more than a snarl.

"Well," Dawn thought, "for starters, I might try to explain the circumstances leading up to the event. I think the moment of insanity is a better defense than 'one time does not make a habit.' Not to mention, you're not even addressing his first concern."

" _Whatever, tell him whatever the hell you want. It's not like you care if he hates me, too. Screw you both."_ Jane growled, pulling back into her little corner of Dawn's mind, a snarling ball of anger and vulgarities.

Dawn turned her gaze back to Garrus V., a smile still tugging at the corner of her lips. Jane wasn't wrong, Dawn did feel a little vindicated hearing the gruff turian defend her person, in his own way, even if she felt relatively sure _she_ had nothing to do with his ire. "She said 'one time does not make a habit.' The rest isn't worth repeating."

"Perhaps." Garrus V. sat back upright. "But, then again, she also happened to dig into your own head just before that."

"That she did." Dawn took a sip of her coffee, ignoring the fire-fueled words floating around in the back of her skull. "Not that it's Garrus' place to tell you about. I assume it was Garrus?"

"No, it was Grunt," he said, his face a stoic mask.

Her eyebrow twitched, the urge to snipe back at his sarcasm only egged on by Jane's tirade. His attitude toward her certainly didn't give her any faith in the claim his issues involved Jane and not Dawn, too.

" _Doesn't feel very good, does it? Having him look at you with_ his _face—with your Garrus' face—but not know you, not trust you, and not even like you."_

"Fuck you, Jane," Dawn thought, turning her attention to Jane V. when the woman sighed in exasperation.

"Boy," Jane V. said, letting the oatmeal plop from her spoon, "this conversation has gotten awfully tense. Perfect hangover talk."

"If it's ruined your appetite, I'll eat your oatmeal," Kasumi offered, her light words breaking the tension building up inside of Dawn.

Dawn chuckled. "Indeed."

Pushing the bowl toward Kasumi, Jane V. laid her elbow on the table and glared at her husband. She hissed something, sounding disjointed and wrong without a second larynx, and he glanced away from Grundan Krul, turning his attention fully to her. He responded—the words just as lost on Dawn as before—and Jane V. hit his arm. He sighed and nodded, apparently giving in to his wife's wishes.

"Mordin will be headed down to Namakli within the hour." Dawn said, draining her cup and standing. "Did you two want to go down with him?"

Jane V. shrugged and nodded before standing up. Nudging her husband, she jerked her head back towards the port observation. "Head over there and get suited up?"

He nodded, standing and leaving without a word.

Catching Dawn's gaze, Jane V. said, "He can be a prick sometimes. I apologize."

Keeping her face as neutral as possible—and with years of experience, she knew it'd be pretty damn neutral—Dawn shrugged. "No need. He didn't say anything that isn't true."

"Yeah, okay." Jane V. didn't sound all too convinced, picking up her mug and finishing her tea. "Just remember, I've been using that Commander-Shepard-doesn't-give-a-shit-face longer than you."

Dawn shook her head, a wry smile on her face as she turned away. "With all due respect, no, you haven't." Carrying her coffee with her, she started walking toward the elevator.

The other woman chuckled. "I didn't say longer than all the Shepards, just you." Her voice came from a little further away as she added, "Don't take what he says personally. Just kick his ass or something to get him into shape. I give permission."

Dawn snorted, letting Jane V. walk away without further comment, content to let the woman think she understood the depth of which the other Shepards impacted Dawn. As much as they were unique individuals, they were all _her_. All a part of her, melded and inseparable from her, their memories her memories, their years of experience, hers.


	8. At Least There's Vorcha

**Chapter 8: At Least There's Vorcha**

 **TLADOCS**

Dawn gave the order for Garrus, Grundan Krul, and Thane to meet her in the hangar. Mordin and the odd couple were probably already down there waiting for her. She didn't really know what they'd find, if anything, but maybe it'd get them a step closer to figuring out how the hell those two came through the puddle of black ooze and how the hell to shove them back through. She didn't expect any trouble groundside, but with the potential for vorcha to come sniffing around, she'd go down in armor.

She left her cabin, chewing on the inside of her lip, and stepped into the elevator. As loathe as she was to admit it, she wasn't entirely sure if Jane V. and Garrus V. could really be trusted, having learned the full extend of her … predicament. Well, nearly, anyway. She still hadn't even really talked to Garrus yet about the cause for her recent influx of hallucinatory flashbacks. She didn't tell him that she'd somehow managed to cannibalize a tenth of the horde of consciousnesses trapped inside of her own. She would, though, soon. Probably. Maybe. It's not like he really _needed_ to know, and he certainly didn't need even more reasons to worry about her—which clearly he already did far more of than she realized if he felt the need to pour out his soul to the older version of himself.

She sighed, gnawing on her lip until she tasted blood as the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened, voices trailing back to her from further in the cavernous room. Great, sounded like everyone was already there, maybe she wouldn't have to wait. She made her way to the back of the hangar, finding Thane and Grundan Krul already sat inside of the shuttle while Garrus stood outside with Mordin and the Vakarian couple.

"Alright, pile in. Jane V., you can take passenger seat up front if you want."

The redheaded woman shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I tend to take up less space, so wherever."

Dawn blinked once, and lifted her own shoulder in a shrug, if the woman didn't want to take her up on the offer to not have to sit in the back with three dead people, it was her call. "Alright, Garrus, you can pilot. I'll ride shotgun. Everyone else get in, or get left behind." She smirked, walking around the the other side of the shuttle to climb into the passenger's seat. She watched over her shoulder while the others climbed inside, Garrus V. waiting until his wife was secure before following suit. Unsurprisingly, the two of them sat on one side of the shuttle, while the rest of Dawn's team sat on the other.

The ride passed in relative silence, broken here and there by the occasional question from Mordin, or the faint hum of a wordless tune from Jane V. Knowing the exact location of the cave entrance, Garrus brought the shuttle in a little closer before settling it down on the rocky outcropping. Dawn didn't waste any time climbing out, taking a few steps back while she waited for the others, scanning the area for any sign of vorcha activity.

Once the shuttle emptied, and they all stood looking to her, she turned and led the way back through the cave. "You'll need light once we get a little deeper, past the recent mining area," she said, glancing back over her shoulder to Mordin and Grundan Krul, and they both gave her a quick nod of acknowledgement.

"As long as there aren't boulders to move or climb over and into tiny crevices, we're good," Garrus V. said, walking at his wife's six and just to her right.

"Well, unless the vorcha came in overnight and added boulders and crevices while we were sleeping, I doubt it'll be a problem." Dawn turned her attention back to her footing. "Don't see why it should be any different than what you walked through yesterday."

"After everything that's happened, I anticipate everything." Jane V.'s chuckle trailed up to Dawn, bringing a smile to her face.

"Never hurts to be prepared, I suppose. Worse comes to worse, we'll make them move the boulders while we watch," Dawn said, gesturing at the men around her.

She heard the soft chuff from Garrus at her right, and the even softer, cat-cough like laugh of Grundan Krul a little further behind.

"Brought explosive charges. Just in case," Mordin said, and she had no doubt he meant it.

The sharp sound of a smack drew Dawn's attention back over her shoulder to Jane V. The other woman rubbed her hands together, a gleeful smile on her face. "Wonderful. I love blowing stuff up."

Dawn grinned. "Pretty sure we all do," she said, tapping the side of her head.

"Uh, yeah." Jane V. gave her a look that screamed 'of course'. "Because blowing shit up is the best."

"Explosives not for fun. Not in cave. Could cause collapse. Must be precise, and only use if necessary." Mordin glanced between the two women.

Dawn laughed, the sound echoing back to her off the walls only to be joined by the near identical sound of Jane V.'s laughter. "Thank you, Professor, for the lesson in proper explosive usage." She glanced over her shoulder, winking at Mordin when he smirked at her. "I don't know what we'd ever do without you."

"Already told you: cause collapse." Mordin's smile grew, appearing rather pleased with himself when Dawn nearly stumbled on a loose rock. "Should keep eyes forward."

She snorted, but didn't argue, catching Jane V. return her gaze to her own feet as well. Dawn turned back around leading the way in silence, pulling out her flashlight as they neared the narrow, dark passage that'd take them to the artifact. It occurred to her, as they entered the passage—forcing them to move first two at a time before eventually shifting to single-file—she'd been more comfortable with the Vakarian couple at her back on the way out than what she was on the way back in. Not that she'd ever let it show. Not for a second.

When at last the tight, enclosed passage opened up again, leaving them in the cavernous room with the artifact, Dawn let out a slow breath as she cut right, letting the others fan out. She swept her flashlight over the room, still seeing no signs of vorcha activity, or any evidence of the artifact having dumped out more Shepards overnight. Mordin wasted no time, hurrying to the softly glowing orb in the center of the cave, opening his omni-tool as he went.

Garrus lingered next to her, his gaze still searching the darkness while Thane and Grundan Krul followed the exuberant, old salarian. The Vakarian couple stayed near the opposite side of the entrance, Jane V. leaning against a rock, arms crossed as she watched the the others moving to the orb. Her husband stood beside her, his gaze occasionally sweeping the depths of the cave before passing over Dawn herself, keeping track of her as much as he guarded his wife. It didn't surprise her, not even a little. The turian probably expected Jane to push for control and try to shoot his wife at any moment.

" _For what? What good would it do? Unless …."_

"Jane," Dawn thought it warning.

" _I'm kidding. Relax. I know killing her isn't going to fix any of this. There's no point in it, nothing to be gained."_ Jane let out a dramatic, exasperated sigh. " _Hell, with my luck, she'd just end up being sucked right up inside your head."_

Dawn suppressed a shudder, the mere thought of it being a possibility made her skin crawl. Surely that wouldn't happen. Right? Maybe she should talk to Mordin about it, in private.

" _Careful, he might be tempted to kill her just to test the theory."_ Jane left Dawn with the impression of a smirk.

Dawn snorted softly, shaking her head when Garrus glanced at her, and thought, "No he wouldn't."

Jane hummed a little. " _I said tempted, didn't say he would, but can you be sure?"_

"Yes, gods, Mordin wouldn't kill her just to see if she ended up in my head," Dawn thought, glancing toward the Vakarian couple.

They talked quietly, their voices not quite reaching Dawn. Every so often, Jane V. nodded her head or waved a hand in the direction of the orb. After a few minutes, Dawn decided to make her way to the orb herself, see what Mordin's scans were telling him so far. She glanced over her shoulder, finding Garrus right beside her as she walked. A few feet behind him and off to the left, Jane V. and her husband followed as well.

Thane glanced up as they approached, his soft smile a welcoming beacon for her as she made a beeline to stand with him. Grundan Krul stood on the opposite side of the artifact, his omni-tool open doing his own scans, though Dawn didn't have the faintest clue what he might be looking for. Still, if the batarian planned on being the next Shadow Broker, she felt more than happy to see him gathering whatever information he could, on everything he could. Mordin moved about, scanning the orb inch by inch, mumbling quietly to himself. Jane V. took a seat not far from the dark liquid, pulling her knees up to rest her arm on top. She picked up a small rock and tossed it into the pool, earning her a tut from Mordin.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Working here. Disruptions to pool might give false data."

Sighing, she nodded, dropping her other arm to her knees, rolling the rock she had ready to throw between her fingers. "Any good news?"

"Yes. Traveled between universes, didn't die. Good news." Mordin sniffed, turning back to his scans. "Orb oscillating. Both exists and does not exist."

"Meaning what?" Dawn settled down on a boulder a few feet behind Thane.

"Meaning same orb—exact same—likely in multiple locations; multiple universes."

"I don't hear how we're getting back." Jane V. sounded frustrated, her face pinched in a frown before her gaze shifted to Dawn. "No offense."

Dawn shrugged.

Mordin sniffed again, the sound laden with even _more_ disdain. "Unprecedented discovery. Takes time to understand. Time to learn. Welcome to figure it out on your own."

Garrus V. rumbled, the sound heavy with warning coming from the shadows beside his wife, the blue glow of his visor standing out more than the rest of him.

His wife sighed, tossing the rock toward the far side of the cave, hitting something solid in the darkness before bouncing and skittering across the floor. "I'd much rather not relive the war, if it's all the same to you."

"Possible wouldn't even send you to your universe, if used without understanding."

"That's not helping," she said, her voice flat.

"Play nice, Mordin." Dawn leaned back, pressing her palms to the uneven surface of the rock behind her and stretched her legs out, crossing her ankles.

"Not play." Mordin glanced at her, giving her a sharp shake of his head. "Serious work. Trying to help, but can't be rushed."

Dawn sighed, turning her gaze back to Jane V. "At least he didn't threaten to tranquilize you."

The other woman snorted. "Might have made the waiting easier." She tilted her head back, glancing at her husband when he huffed and crossed his arms. "Well, for me, anyways."

"We don't have to stay down here. I just thought you two would want to be here. I can leave Mordin here with a guard or two, we can take the shuttle back up if you want." She shrugged. "Or have another brought down."

"Not that I don't want to be here, just … impatient, you know? I want this to be over," Jane V. said, shaking her head.

"I know. You know Mordin, though, if anyone's going to figure this thing out, it's him." Dawn glanced at the salarian, catching the slight tick of his lips, only a hint of a smile as he focused on the task at hand.

Jane V. let her leg drop, her armor making a thump against the cavern floor. "No, I trust him."

"We just wonder about what's happening on the other side." The older turian said, his face lost in the shadows save one blue eye behind his visor. "Our family, our friends."

Dawn sucked in a slow breath. "Well, I imagine, if Mordin gets this all right, you'll get back and no time will have passed. Or at least very little." She glanced over at the hovering blue visor. "So, if we assume the timelines are otherwise in sync, I'd say you, your wife, and your friends are off fighting the collectors, and the you that's here now, doesn't exist yet."

Mordin sniffed. "Time relative. All time exists at once, only perceived to have past, present, future. They exist."

Dawn considered throwing a rock at the salarian, telling him to be quiet and do his job but decided it'd only lead to him scolding her for a half-hour. " _The point is_ , we're going to do our best to get them not only back to their universe, but to their time, so their absence isn't felt by their loved ones."

"Of course. Can confirm orb leviathan in nature. Fluid pouring from orb, in pool, quantum entangled." He stopped, glancing up at Dawn. "Like QEC in comm room."

"Well, if you can manage it, then know you have my thanks." Jane V. sounded tense, but her face betrayed little cast in shadows. She laughed, a dry, humorless sound. "If we don't just disappear from existence when it goes wrong, that is."

"Won't disappear from existence." Mordin gave a light shake of his head, his attention already back on the artifact.

Pushing herself back up to her feet, Dawn turned her flashlight back on. "I'm going to go look around." She shone the light deeper into the cave before glancing over her shoulder. "Anyone else coming?"

Jane V. smacked her hands on the ground, pushing herself up. "I'm in." She turned to her husband, her voice taking on an all too familiar commander tone as she said, "Ping me if Mordin finds anything."

Thane moved up to her side. "I'll join you, siha." He glanced at Jane V. "If it's alright with you?"

Jane V. held out a hand, gesturing for him to lead the way. "I don't care. I'll keep the freak outs down."

Thane hesitated at Jane's response, gaze shifting back to Dawn. She smiled and slipped her arm through his, tugging him along.

Shining her light out in front of them, she squeezed Thane's arm. "She's a big girl, her decision to make."

"Indeed."

* * *

 **Parable**

Jane never thought she'd be bored trying to get home, but waiting for Mordin to run his tests was slowly becoming the most annoyingly dull things she had ever experienced. It didn't help that Garrus paced, on edge, the entire time in the Observation Room back on the Normandy the night before, but, down in the cave waiting for Mordin to do his magic, he just stood there. Menacingly.

Her sanity waned with every minute, just not cut out for sitting around, doing nothing, and dealing with a situation she had no grasp of how to get back under control. All that seemed to have become entertaining consisted of her throwing rocks, but Mordin shot that idea down pretty quick. She had resigned herself to walking through the dark tunnels with Dawn and her Thane, looking for something to occupy themselves in a place where they had only two other options, try to study the orb, or watch other people do it.

"I can't believe you two are so calm," she grumbled, scrubbing at a scuff on her armor that she saw just within her peripheral each time Dawn's light at her back hit her. "This is the worst mission I've ever been on."

She didn't expect a real response to that, but Dawn's voice carried a slight hint of what sounded like mock indignation. "Seriously? Come on, I've _got_ to be better than collectors or reapers."

"At least then I could shoot something." Coming out into the wider tunnels, Jane slowed down enough to finally be beside the two instead of uncomfortably in their sights.

After a moment's pause, Dawn spoke once more. "I have to try to stay calm … things get ugly whenever I let my emotions get the better of me. It, uh, tips the scales inside my head."

Kicking a rock with her heavy boot, Jane snorted at how the exact opposite was true for herself. "Yeah. I'm backwards. Too much quiet makes things too loud in here." She tapped her head before sighing. "I guess all Shepards are fucked up, huh?"

Dawn laughed. "You should've met me before this whole thing started. Sure, I was a badass on the field, but on shore leave … Commander Hot Mess, let me tell you."

Jane barked a laugh, almost missing Thane's chuckle, and grinned at her alternate partner in the hell that is being 'Commander Shepard'. "Never changes, then. Good thing I had Garrus around or, the first shore leave on the Citadel knowing him, I'd have been too drunk to remember the hotel I was staying at."

That got a small smile from Dawn, her lips quirking just so as if imaging it. "Sounds perfectly normal to me." Jane snorted at that, just wondering what messes the younger version of Garrus had pulled Dawn out of. "And Jane says that things don't seem all too different as far she's seen."

"Ever think about what ifs? Think there could be other universes, realities - whatever - out there where there aren't even the Reapers?" She huffed a light laugh at just how ridiculous that could be, how it would change things and how much would stay the same. "I'd probably be a grunt still in the Alliance."

"Gods, I hope so. It sure would make things feel a little more hopeful to know the reapers didn't exist everywhere." Tilting her head to the side, Dawn seemed to consider. "Though I wouldn't call being a commander a grunt, but yeah … probably never would've made Spectre. Or hell, maybe I would've and learned a lot more from Nihlus. Shit, Saren would still be around, too."

Jane shrugged at that, knowing enough from her own dealings with people of all kind of views on the man that a situation with Saren being alive wouldn't change all too much in the long run. Opinions aside, he was a dickhead, Sovereign or no, but it would definitely have stopped him from making such a damn mess of the place. "Eh. I have no real opinions on him one way or the other now that he isn't a pain in my ass anymore."

"Anderson ever get around to telling you the full story between him and Saren? Saren needed to be stopped even before he became indoctrinated. The way he handled things …"

Dawn's voice trails off, but Jane was only half listening anyways. What would this woman think of some of the things Jane did?

 _Pretty sure most of that would make me a war criminal, too. Well -_ _ **more**_ _of one._

"Yeah…. Can't really comment on that. I know of it, but…"

The other woman looked over towards her, and she could feel Dawn's scrutiny, making her itch. "Some of the other Shepards…they did some things I don't personally agree with, but after having them in my head for awhile… I guess I can understand their reasons a little better."

"Afraid you wouldn't mine," Jane glanced at Dawn and narrowed her eyes in her own examination. "I have a feeling you'd put the galaxy, the war effort, before your loved ones."

Dawn's eyes turned to Thane before she met Jane's once more. "Suppose I would. Suppose I already have."

Some of Jane's nerves eased, but she still wondered exactly what that'd amount to if Dawn would end up facing the same war she had to. Still, she didn't speak more of it as she saw the tunnels brighten as the sun seemed to reach in between the passageways.

Yet, something felt off. She felt it, and figured Dawn and Thane could sense the change in the air as they slowed, seeming to soften their steps to be able to hear.

True to her suspicions, Jane heard a grating yell and sighed. "Wonderful," she said flatly, knowing exactly what made that sound. Pulling her weapon out, and hearing the other two do the same, Jane stalked closer to the entrance to the caves.

Coming up towards the opening of the passage that'd lead them into the large chamber at the entrance of the tunnels, she sneaked out behind Dawn and took position behind a rock on the right as the other Shepard took one a bit further left. Jane was sure Thane disappeared off towards Dawn's position, but didn't really care to look for him. She both knew he'd be better hidden than herself and, even if he wasn't the Thane she trusted, held some idea that he wouldn't leave her high and dry if she moved forward.

 _Way to put it all on the table, Jane. What's the worst that can happen? Getting shot? Sure…. No problem…._

She looked towards Dawn and jerked her head towards a jut of rocks further ahead, announcing her move forward. The other woman nodded in 'we'll cover you' directly before she flicked her hand to activate her mic.

"We've got movement over here. Sounds like vorcha," Dawn announced, voice low enough not to reveal her position, and Jane ducked her head and moved as quietly as she could in her armor towards the cover. Her armor, bulky as it was, could protect her when she gets close to an enemy, but it made her fucking _loud_.

Signalling Dawn with the okay to move up, she heard the woman reassure whoever was on her mic, her voice sounding barely above a whisper to Jane. "Nah, I think we can handle it."

 _ **Jane**_. She sighed inwardly, glancing up towards the ceiling in exasperation at her husband calling to her through their mental link. _**What's going on out there?**_

She had a thought to really make him squirm with some flippant answer but reconsidered as Dawn moved past her and further into the open. _It's nothing. Be done in no time._

 _ **Why do I not trust you?**_

She merely snorted as answer and jumped her cover, moving up as far as she'd be able to get to the growing sounds of yelling vorcha. Motioning at her comm when Dawn looked her way, she linked up their comms.

"Got any plans, or just go in guns blazing?" she asked, motioning her spike thrower.

"We can always try to convince them to leave … but vorcha aren't especially bright. It's your way home that we're guarding though, so the call is yours."

Jane shrugged, then nodded. "Good to know. Just don't shoot me and we'll be good." She chuckled lightly. "I'm pretty easy to spot, just look for the bulky as shit terminus armor and _don't_ hit that."

"I don't think I'm very likely to mistake you for a vorcha, but thanks for the vote of confidence," she said with a grin and Jane matched it.

"Hey, have you met Garrus? He likes to hit me with concussives every once in awhile when I pull a move he doesn't particularly care for." With that, she cocked her boomstick and stepped out. "Hey!" All the vorcha turned to her, hissing and raising their weapons. "Aw… That's not too friendly."

Her barriers caught the first few shots, but it gave her a shot to get into the next closest cover as Dawn and Thane cover her. She saw a few biotics fly beside her and pulled out a grenade. Glancing out towards the actual entrance of the tunnel and beyond where the cave was bound to collapse and smirked. Just as Dawn blasted by with a charge, Jane threw the grenade, arcing it over Dawn as she opened fire on the poor bastard blown off his feet.

The grenade exploded with a thundering boom and sent a small group of the vorcha flying. Switching to her biotics, she targeted a vorcha with a flamethrower and quickly ordered, "Don't shoot him." Her arm glows with energy that pulls at her spine, and she threw what used to be a pull. "He's about to change sides."

For whatever the hell that probably sounded like to the other two, they listened and left the raging vorcha alone as he turned his flamethrower on his allies. Stepping out of cover, she ignored one vorcha beside her getting a taste of Dawn's reave and lifted her weapon, firing. The spike from her weapon launched with a speed that left nothing in its wake when it reached its target, leaving nothing but air where a head used to be.

"Man, I love this gun," she yelled over the gunfire as she loaded in a new spike.

Directly after the hiss of her shotgun died down, she caught Dawn's chuckle. "I tend to favor the Black Widow."

"Then you'd love that cannon Garrus packs. It's a freak weapon…" She shockwaved two vorcha and saw one's head explode - Thane - and the other catch fire - Dawn.

"Too bad I doubt he'd let me within three feet of it."

Jane snorted. "Don't feel bad. He doesn't even let _me_ near that thing." She controlled another pyro vorcha. "I'm kinda jealous of that thing."

"Yeah," Dawn charged across the field and into a pair of vorcha before rolling out of the way to let the pyro do his work on the downed pair and said, "I don't think your husband..." she fired at another unsuspecting vorcha hiding behind a rock, "Likes me very much, so maybe make that ten feet?"

Wanting to hear the woman better instead of over comm, Jane charged beside Dawn, kicking the knee out of one vorcha as Dawn blew the other away. "Yeah, he's… difficult."

With only a few vorcha left clustered together, Jane fired at one, Dawn caught another on fire, and Thane both warped and shot a fourth. With two left, it seemed like she and Dawn both activated their biotic charge, flying across the area to shoot in sync, each catching a vorcha between the eyes.

 _Wouldn't be able to do that again if we tried._

"It's alright," Dawn said, popping the heat sink of her weapon. "He doesn't need to like me. Yeah, it stings a little, but I've had far worse injuries. I'm glad that my Garrus was able to … ah, bond with him, though…"

Jane nodded as she holstered her own weapon. "Let me put it this way, does _your_ Garrus trust _me_?" She lifted a brow.

Dawn smirked. "Who said anything about _trust_?"

Jane shrugged and looked to Thane as he rejoined them. "For my husband, it's one and the same."

"That's a shame."

"Tell me about it. He needs to relax sometimes, but he's just a grump." She sighed, letting the adrenaline start to wane back to a level where her heart wasn't pounding and she didn't feel ready throw a fist. "Comes from Omega, I guess. And then some shit after the war, now that I think about it."

Jane watched Thane and Dawn - without making it overly obvious she was staring - as he wrapped an arm around Dawn and she leaned into him. Oddly enough, it almost seemed as if that fight drained Dawn more than it should've. "I suppose neither of them had the same experience on Omega as the others."

"I can only compare the two, so I'll have to trust you on that one." Seeing as how there wasn't much left for them out there, Jane gave a subtle move towards the tunnels in silent request to go back. If she didn't at least go back to see what the hell was going on, she was sure she'd start looking for more vorcha to pass the time.

Dawn walked behind Jane, the sound of their footsteps ringing too loud in the now empty cavern. "I warned him about a few things before I died in the attack on the Normandy. When I found him, he had some of the same people with him, some different people, but he was set up in a whole different area. Right in Talons' territory, apparently. He killed Sidonis the day he met him, because he knew Sidonis would betray him." Hearing the echoing footsteps stop, Jane looked back over her shoulder to see Dawn jerk a thumb back towards the dead. "Think we should send them out here to move the bodies? Kinda a red flag to any other vorcha passing by."

Jane huffed a laugh. "Damn… I wanted to leave them. They create a distinct feng shui." Still, she stopped and leaned a hip on a large stone. "Sure. Give them a call." She waited for Dawn to send out a short alert to get all available hands on deck before shrugging when she had the woman's attention again. "Yeah. Seems like there's another big difference. The whole 'Archangel team' thing wasn't even something Garrus wanted, they just sorta… tagged along. And he sorta…" She gestured with two fingers against her cheeks in pretend mandibles, saying, "kinda cut Sidonis' mandibles off in some weird turian thing."

Dawn nodded, brows drawn down as if in thought. Considering all the shit she told Jane she goes through in her head, 'in thought' was probably putting things lightly. "Can't say any of the other Shepards' Garruses ever cut off Sidonis' mandibles… that we know of, anyway. They usually either kill him on the Citadel or we talk him out of it." Jane merely crossed her arms in silent signal that she was listening as it seemed like Dawn was going through her head and speaking whatever was in there. "For the others… Garrus saved Sidonis the day he arrived on Omega, after that Sidonis and he hit it off, started talking about cleaning the place up. The team built up around that ideal. For my Garrus … I think it was just a matter of him thinking he needed to be there doing that so I'd come back to him again like I promised … except … by the time I did, he'd lost a part of himself."

"Yeah, I can understand that," Jane responded, thinking back to the state she found her mate in. "I think that's a constant unless the others have different memories." She shrugged, not wanting to go down that rabbit hole.

"They were always a little more ... hardened. And they brooded for a while about Sidonis until we found him, but after that ... they were just ... Garrus. Awkward, cocky, and always at our six. They smiled more, laughed more ... I mean, yeah, they had some hard moments, especially later on when the reapers really hit and they had to make decisions on how to defend Palaven ... I guess I'd say they lost their naivety but they weren't calloused and jaded all around." She got quiet a moment, looking at her feet, and her mouth moved as she seemed to bite her cheek. "Probably didn't help that I made him watch me die, and then he had to be the one to recover my body because I fucked up somewhere along the line and lost Liara in the attack, too."

Jane merely hummed, movement from the tunnels catching her eyes, and glanced over to see the two turians making their way over. If turian hearing was the same across realities, then Dawn's Garrus heard everything, and she wasn't sure if Dawn really intended that. Clearing her throat to change the atmosphere in the air, she forced a grin and called out.

"About time you two joined the fun! And you came for the best part," she said as she stood up, motioning to the bodies. "Clean up!"

Jane looked aside to catch Dawn put on her 'Commander Shepard' face and stepped slightly out of the way of a tense younger Garrus. Tense being one word for the cold look in his eyes. Having her own husband stop at her side, and feeling his eyes scan her for injuries - _man, can't even take a shit without him thinking I found trouble_ \- she silently thanks the fact that at least her Garrus seemed to be able to lock that Archangel shit away until he needed it.

The other woman forced a smile at her Garrus, but Jane was not stupid enough that she didn't see right through it. Hell, maybe that's because she's used that very expression before.

"Garrus," Dawn said to her own turian partner. "Wanna come throw dead vorcha over the side of the cliff?"

His chuff almost seemed to echo, but there was the slightest of shifts in him that she'd never have caught if her own Garrus didn't do the exact thing. A bit of the ice in the younger man's eyes seemed to thaw as he flutters his mandibles. "I thought you said it wasn't my job to clean up your messes?"

Dawn pouted, jutting her lower lip. "I'll make an exception, just this once."

Jane snorted and looked up to her own stoic, still as stone, Garrus. "That look makes me think there isn't any news about that damn orb." His expression - a look of frustration and disappointment pulling his mandibles against his jaw - was her answer, and she sighed in her own irritation. As nice as these people were, she was tired and wanted to just pass out and sleep. Preferably on a planet, not a ship, and preferably not with a husband so tense he slept even _less_ than normal.

The younger Garrus' unscarred hum drew her attention, and she caught just the last bit of his own examination of his loved one. "I'm sure we can handle it," he said, gesturing between himself, Jane's husband, and Thane, "if you two want to go keep an eye on your favorite mad scientist."

"Hey," Jane interjected with a chuckle, "I wouldn't really use 'mad' for the man who thinks it's funny to try and give the entire Normandy sex vids because their commander is gettin' some. I'm sure there's something much more fitting for that kind of maniac."

"I was using her words for Mordin, but uh, hmm… I'm not really sure how to respond to that."

She snorted and laughed, looking to Dawn. "Should I send you the vids?"

Thane coughed into his fist, blinking twice but otherwise saying nothing. Dawn snorted and shook her head. "No, I think we do just fine on our own, and if we want porn, we can always ask Joker."

The younger Garrus hummed again. "They might be interesting to watch…"

Jane grinned and mock whispered, "I'll send them to your tool. Top grade stuff, made in the future, too."

That pulled a laugh from Dawn. "Joker will be jealous."

Jane shrugged. "Eh. He'll only know if you all go around shoving them in his face."

"Oh, I'll tell him," the younger turian assured, a teasing sounding rumble in his tone, "and when he tries to pretend he's not interested and fails, I'll sell him copies."

"Grade A plan. I approve." She nodded and turned to her own Garrus. "Well, I did all the hard work with Dawn and Thane, so you have to clean up."

"Just what I was hoping for sitting in the dark watching Mordin study that orb and sing under his breath." His voice was flat in that way he always used when he was amused and trying to act unaffected.

Dawn tugged her Garrus down by the collar to get a kiss, then gave Thane his own kiss. It seemed the two Shepards had similar ideas, and Jane yanked down her husband and hugged him, giving his mandible a nuzzle. She had hoped it would have given the other three some more privacy, but she still ended up hearing Dawn reassuring Thane quietly.

Jane guessed she'd just have to keep it to herself that Dawn was obviously going through some shit in her head. Last thing she wanted to do was make it seem like she was studying them, at least not when her mate is doing that enough for the both of them.

She actually liked those people, even if a part of her still held her gun close.


End file.
